Standing Up to Sexual Harassment

The news of Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes sounds all too familiar when bearing in mind the plights many women have to face in the workplace. Considering that Carlson’s show was at the top of its 2 PM time slot with an average of 1.1 million viewers, I would not be surprised to find that her accusations hold water. Being asked to perform sexually to assure the continuation of your contract, in addition to having to deal with what sounds like a sexist work environment, should be unacceptable for any employee. It’s heartening that Carlson is calling out Ailes despite his immense power in the communications industry – even those at the top of their fields should not be allowed to harass employees with impunity. You can read more on the lawsuit in The New York Times.

Image: Rich Polk/Getty Images for Variety

Creating a New Framework to Judge CEOs

The metrics for evaluating CEOs are often misleading – many of these measurements encourage managers to aim for shareholder return, rather than the long-term health of their company. CEOs should be paid for the long-term growth of their companies, so that instead of “running their operations into the ground,” they can be establishing a company that has staying power. The key to that? Creating a psychologically safe workplace for employees. If CEOs are encouraged to create positive workplace cultures that support overall growth, the managers under them will most likely follow suit. It’s a win-win for everyone involved in the company, from the board of investors to the lowest level employees. You can read more on this topic at The New York Times.

Business Ethics Up for Debate

This is the most baffling article I’ve read recently. In it, Prof. Deidre McCloskey suggests that, despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, business ethics are just fine, possibly better than they’ve ever been. Never mind the sorts of stories we see every day, about layoffs, visa abuses, product safety blunders, and disregard of workplace culture – everything is supposedly going well. I obviously disagree, and I highly recommend reading the rebuttal letter to the editor by Prof. Gary Mongiovi if you can – it perfectly qualifies the inaccuracies in this article, which I’m perplexed that the Financial Times even published. As Mongiovi puts it, “Prof. McCloskey’s complacency is recklessly optimistic." Read the full article in the Financial Times, and check out the linked letter to the editor.

Visa Abuses Mean Layoffs for Domestic Workers

H-1B visas are a great idea in theory. The notion of bringing the world’s best and brightest to work for your company is appealing, but many corporations have been abusing these visas to bring in low-cost alternatives to their existing employees. To add insult to injury, according to this article, “in many cases, laid off American workers have been required to train their lower-paid replacements.” To take it one step further, many laid off workers signed agreements that made it impossible to criticize their former employers in order to receive severance pay – making it impossible for many of the victims of this situation to be heard publicly. No wonder that, according to Gallup Polling, 70% of American workers are unengaged at work. You can read more on this at The New York Times.

Photo: Workers from Abbott Laboratories gathered after a series of layoffs at their company; Joshua Lott for NYT.

The Worst Kind of Workplace Culture

This is a perfect example of a horribly toxic work environment. It seems the Oakland Police Dept. isn’t only mired by bigoted racism, as was found in a Stanford study referenced in this article. The fact that an alleged 28 police officers in the area had relations with an underage prostitute, leading to the resignation of three police chiefs in 10 days, is evocative of one of the worst varieties of workplace poisonousness. How many other officers knew of this behavior, and were compelled to stay silent? How many participated in this behavior because they were compelled to? Finally, how many upper level officers looked the other way? Beyond a cultural transformation, everyone in a supervisory level who was aware (or should have been aware) needs to be fired. You can read more about this horrible situation at NPR.

Photo: Former Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, who was the first chief to resign over the accusations. Josh Edelson for Getty Images via NPR.

Overcoming Ageism in the Workplace

As I’ve written about before, oftentimes, workplace bullying can disproportionately affect certain groups like older employees. Businesses seeking to cut costs by not paying older employees will sometimes put them in a position where their only option is to quit. I touch on this briefly in this AARP article, where I and a few other workplace culture specialists discuss strategies to stand up to workplace bullying. Shamefully, ageism is widespread, and quite often, it’s difficult to find help in courts. Check out the piece at AARP.com.

Communication is Key for Workplace Culture

“At its core, culture is about the humanization of a business.” I love this sentiment. Communication truly is key to creating a positive, psychologically safe workplace culture, more than trendy perks like free lunch or massages. For managers and employees alike, being mindful of communication is the best way to support the productivity of others while simultaneously establishing an environment built around openness and clarity. Face-to-face discussions about business functions are fundamental to team building and growth. I agree with Ramakrishnan’s contention that video meetings are essential for remote employees to feel a sense of culture, but the importance of actually speaking to coworkers is just as essential in the office as it is out of it. You can read Ramakrishnan's full piece on communication in the workplace at The Huffington Post. 

Using the Workplace to Prevent Mass Violence

The recent events in Orlando are tragic, unprecedented, and were entirely preventable. I’ll be writing more on this soon, but I believe that workplace indicators could have kept Omar Mateen from following the path of violence he chose. It’s been a hard day for both the LGBT and Muslim communities, in addition to the USA at large, but we all have to believe in the ability of compassion to overcome hate. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who died. I hope the national conversation turns away from marginalization, blame and politics, and begins to focus more on the preventative mental health perspective that could have stopped Mateen in his tracks. You can read more about Mateen in the workplace in this Daily Beast piece.

Photo: Hilary Swift for NYT

Putting Yourself Before Your Country

People may disagree with Leonard Pitts Jr.’s assessment of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decisions regarding Donald Trump. However, I agree completely with him – those who endorse Trump are doing so out of self-interest or bitter partisanship rather than putting their country first. The comparison of Paul Ryan and Franz Von Papen, who was partially responsible for the rise of Hitler for his own political expedience, is completely fair. A few Republicans, like Mitt Romney for example, should be commended for standing up to Trump and the rest of their party for refusing to endorse a dangerous, racist and fundamentally flawed candidate. The GOP loses big time whether or not Trump wins or loses the election – they’ve exposed an immensely problematic underbelly to their values. America needs a party of common-sense conservatism if it wants to continue having a healthy two-party system. The way current Republicans are tepidly, almost shamefully, endorsing Trump is in and of itself shameful. You can read Pitts's piece at The Miami Herald.

A Step Towards More Comprehensive Employee Evaluation

It’s certainly a good thought to evaluate employees with words rather than numbers. However, these changes by Morgan Stanley, while encouraging, may not be enough to truly give employees a sense of substantive feedback at work. While employees will get a five-adjective list of descriptors of their work performance, the retention of 360 reviews is troubling. Even though they’re a norm in many industries, and while some companies are able to make them work, they’re highly susceptible to bullying. Change is slow, especially in some large corporations, but when it comes to employee evaluation, more comprehensive systems need to be in place that take into account workplace culture and employee productivity. You can read more at The New York Times.

Image: Morgan Stanley's HQ in NYC; Mario Tama/Getty Images via NYT