One of the most difficult sexual harassment concepts for many people to grasp is implied quid pro quo. Explicit quid pro quo is where the boss says, “Sleep with me and you get the job,” or “If you don’t sleep with me, you’re fired.” We rarely see those kinds of cases because pretty much everyone knows that’s illegal.
Much more frequent is the boss or powerful person who comes on to a subordinate without making a promise or threat. Bosses may not realize that subordinates can feel powerless to say no because they may believe their jobs depend on them going along with the advances. Or they may be so shocked that they freeze.
An excellent demonstration of this dynamic is in the Apple TV series, The Morning Show. Starring Jennifer Anniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, the 10 episodes of the first season are a fantastic look at many of the issues that can arise, including cover-ups by management, complicity by male and female bystanders, failures by HR, and impacts on truly consensual relationships.
But if you want to get the essence of it in one hour, check out season 1, episode 8. A flashback, it is actually the first episode chronologically. In it we see Carell, as a sort of Matt Lauer character, come on to a woman subordinate. What is happening from his perspective? From her perspective? What could be the short-term and long-term results? These are questions we can ponder and discuss with friends and family. To see some answers, you can watch the next two episodes as well—or go back to the beginning and watch all 10.
By the way, you can subscribe for free for one week (and we don’t get anything from Apple for this recommendation).
What you should do: Choose a weekend you want to binge watch and get ready for a program that is better acted and scripted, and more thought-provoking, than any training video. No matter what your opinion or experience with sexual harassment, it will give you a new perspective.
Make sure your managers and employees are prepared to recognize and prevent unlawful harassment in the workplace. Register your managers for our Harassment Prevention Webinar and your non-managerial staff for our Understanding Harassment Webinar.
Posted 2-10-2020
Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.