Start with bullies, not hugs and holiday parties

Article here. Excerpt:

'After all, workplace behavior doesn’t have to rise to the level of criminality to make it draining, demoralizing and just plain bad management. How much time did employees of the Weinstein company spend ushering women up to hotel rooms and then dealing with the fallout rather than working on putting together great movies? For all the myth of the difficult genius, does anyone have any proof that allegedly blowing up at employees made “Charlie Rose,” or the Spotted Pig, or On Point (a show on which I’ve been a frequent guest) a better television program, restaurant or radio series? You can shove people toward excellence by making them terrified, but there are additional costs to choosing bullying as a management technique, including lost productivity, high turnover and even higher health care expenses.

People who lament a changing workplace climate have often focused on potentially ambiguous pleasantries, worrying that they can’t hug female co-workers or that their compliments will land afoul. Plenty of those conundrums can be sorted out by good communication and old-fashioned common sense. If we’re serious about stopping sexual harassment and the workplace dynamics that enable them, it’s the bullies who ought to be worried.'

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Yes, toss the bullies. I recommend the book The No Assholes Rule for more on the effects of retaining assholes in your company.

But because any man need only be accused of even minor improprieties, real or imagined, and since these accusations can be easily used for political purposes at work and elsewhere (see here re Sen. Schumer and the attempt to frame him -- what's funny is he has been an ardent pro-feminist like his neice the comedienne, Amy), avoiding physical contact or contact generally with women at work is still something I'd recommend.

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. . . don't expect that same grace in return. Most women seem to feel entitled to touch whomever they please, even though they would cry afoul for you touching them the same way. I really wish handsy women (and men, for that matter) would finally learn a lesson that they have been told since childhood: KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELVES.

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