6 takeaways and more from the #MeToo Power Breakfast

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There were great questions and lessons shared at the Sept. 12 Business Record Power Breakfast, “Best Business Practices in the #MeToo Era.” Here are six takeaways from Business Record staff writers and notable quotes from the panelists. You can watch a video of the program on the Business Record’s Facebook page.

Ask yourself: What does your firm do well?
By Suzanne Behnke

A short introduction by a Marco employee brought up a great question and drew a laugh when Erin Eike, technology adviser, was introduced. She said as she was thinking about what to say at the event, she tried to put herself in the audience’s shoes.

“If I was sitting in your seat, I’d be thinking, ‘Marco … who cares?’” Laughter followed. She then asked everyone to think of what they do well at their companies. And she wanted the more than 200 attendees to know this about her company: Marco does technology well; the company help people, especially with technology; and the company is big with 1,100 workers but it feels small. It also has good number of women working — notable for a a tech company, which usually employs more men than women — and three of eight top executives are women.

Roots of #MeToo
By Kate Hayden

Here’s more background on the #MeToo movement’s foundation, which is as important as the movement itself.

Actress Alyssa Milano elevated “Me Too” when she used the phrase on Twitter in October 2017. Thousands of women responded or tweeted that day.

But the movement was founded in 2007 by Tarana Burke, a black woman and activist who founded the nonprofit Just Be Inc. to help sexual assault survivors. The New York Times told the story of how Burke’s role was almost erased from the narrative before Milano was made aware of Burke’s work and quickly moved to correct the problem.

Calling ‘good humans’
By Kent Darr

Panelist Tiffany O’Donnell, CEO of Iowa Women Lead Change, recalled two incidents from her days as a television news reporter and anchor. One occurred years ago at work, where a video editor repeatedly played a clip of her walking in high heels. The video was on an off-air monitor, so the public didn’t see it. But others in the newsroom did.

“It was kind of creepy,” she said. “My boss saw that this was inappropriate and stepped forward to do something about it,” O’Donnell said. She described the news editor as a “good human.” She told of another incident, this at a social function, where a colleague didn’t fit the description either. Her husband later noted that the man’s actions were inappropriate.

“It really speaks to how really strong individuals can be victims of this,” she said. “We all need to be self-aware, men and women, and step forward and be courageous about this when we see it.”

Advice for small businesses
By Kate Hayden

Panelists at the #MeToo forum tackled the needs of small staffs in response to an audience member’s question: How could small-business owners enact policies in advance of an issue?

“In my experience, most companies underinvest in training,” said Jon Couture, Principal’s chief human resources officer. 

Couture recommended that businesses with limited staff have one designated staff member to receive HR training, and that the company would build a safe workplace culture starting with the leadership, much like a large corporation would do. “There are great consultants in the marketplace … that can either do the training for you or advise you in specific issues,” Couture said. 

Proving harassment a high bar
BY Joe Gardyasz

Employment law attorney Karin Johnson noted that the standard for what constitutes workplace harassment is very difficult to establish on a legal basis.

The “courts expect you to put up with a lot of garbage,” she said. To prove harassment, plaintiffs have to provide evidence of “severe and pervasive” behavior that is objectionable both subjectively to the person harassed as well as objectively by others.

Johnson also said that organizations shouldn’t be afraid to weigh the credibility of the accuser and the accused in cases of alleged harassment rather than concluding it’s a case of “he said/she said,” because if the complaint is taken to court, a jury would certainly take credibility into account.  

Companies should have several reporting mechanisms, supportive culture
BY Joe Gardyasz

Principal’s chief human resources officer, Jon Couture, said one of several resources that his company provides for employees to report harassment is an anonymous hotline that they can call as an alternative to directly approaching the HR department or a supervisor.

“I think the key is that there are mechanisms for people to report issues,” he said, “and a culture in which people aren’t afraid to use those mechanisms.”

Similarly, Rockwell Collins provides an ombudsman for workers as an intermediary trained to investigate claims of harassment, Tiffany O’Donnell said.

That person is typically a senior leader who is appointed by other senior leaders in the organization as a tool “to find out what’s going on in an honest way,” she said. As with Principal’s hotline, an ombudsman is just one of several reporting avenues the company makes available, O’Donnell said.