62 million... And a professional network trying hard to avoid the conversation...
During my early days as a manager, I got a sexual harrassment complaint in my team. A male team member had said some things to a female colleague on an adjoining desk. Both were insourced contract employees from different companies. The company had a POSH (prevention of sexual harrassment) policy, a committee existed. The committee (2 women, 1 man, plus my manager who was a man) interviewed me, both of them, and other team members, the next day. 2 days later, the male team member was asked to leave the project, and his employer was asked to provide someone else for the role. However, the committee also said that the 'intent to harrass' was not proven, so, to be 'fair', the female team member was also asked to leave the project.
In effect, the committee had expected that the woman should have 'accurately' determined the 'intent' behind the man's comments, and that the complaint reflected poorly on her judgement. As her manager, I had questioned but not objected to this. To this day, that is one of my greatest regrets. And I never got a chance to properly apologize for that.
If we are to make our workplaces safe, we need to start asking every male candidate (and existing male team member) this question: "Are you a feminist? Explain."
And our policies need to believe women. Always.
#FeminismAtWork #SafeWorkplace