The chief doctor at a hospital recently was accused of sexual harassment. His defense: the attraction was mutual. She consented.
He allegedly had sex with a woman employee multiple times, in the workplace and in their cars. Though they both were married, he said it was a consensual affair.
The woman said there was no mutual attraction. She felt he was using their power to get sex. And she claimed sexual harassment.
Why did he misread the situation? Harvard Business Review recently published some research in an essay titled “Sex, Power and the Systems That Enable Men Like Harvey Weinstein,” by psychologist professor Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, who for 25 years has been studying leaders who abuse their power and prey upon the vulnerable.
He wrote:
Powerful men, studies show, overestimate the sexual interest of others and erroneously believe that the women around them are more attracted to them than is actually the case. Powerful men also sexualize their work, looking for opportunities for sexual trysts and affairs, and along the way leer inappropriately, stand too close, and touch for too long on a daily basis, thus crossing the lines of decorum — and worse.
The sad result is that these men are not unusual.
In all my years of training and consulting, I have found very few men who think of themselves as powerful. Even CEOs have boards and investors they are accountable to. But because they don’t recognize their power and how it affects them unconsciously, they do things they think of as innocent, when they’re actually guilty.
What this means to you: If you are a lead, supervisor, manager, executive or other person with power, there is no such thing as “mutual attraction” with people lower than you in the organization. Do not pursue a relationship with them, or you may be pursued in a court of law.
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 12-10-2019
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.