WORKPLACE CULTURE

The Faller of Giants

Sexual harassment is taking down the high and mighty

Ownership of a professional sports team is the crowning glory for the elite of American capitalism. The cachet of pro sports brings, not only windfall profits, celebrity and notoriety but equity in a cornerstone of popular culture. The crown jewel of professional sports franchises is an NFL team. To own one is to breathe the rarefied air of a privileged club that most billionaires cannot buy their way into, including a certain sitting president who has tried.

The sheer enormity of the scope of just a single NFL game as an event can hardly be overestimated. Entire sectors of the economy rest on masses of fans staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, drinking in bars and buying merchandise. The collective self-esteem of major metropolitan cities is formed by the mythology of professional sport, most notably, its football team.

In May 2018, Hedge Fund Manager David Tepper acquired the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for a record 2.275 billion dollars. The transfer of ownership did not proceed through an estate settlement or normal sale conditions. It came as a result of findings from a Sports Illustrated investigative report into misdeeds by former owner, Jerry Richardson.[1]

Jerry Richardson’s life story reads like a screenplay for the American dream.[2] After being drafted out of Wofford College, he caught a pass from Johnny Unitas in the 1959 NFL championship as a member of the Baltimore Colts.

Following his football career, he co-founded the Hardee’s Chicken restaurant chain which he parlayed into a food service empire under Flagstar. He would eventually have a controlling interest in 2500 restaurants employing over 100,000 people.

He was awarded the Carolina Panthers NFL expansion franchise in 1993 making him only the second former player in league history to own a team. The other was the Chicago Bears’ George Halas.

Jerry touted his team as a champion of diversity with a prominent African American quarterback in Cam Newton, a Hispanic head coach in Ron Rivera and a female CEO in Tina Becker. The Jerry Richardson owned Panthers advanced to Superbowl 50 after a 15–1 season only to lose to the Denver Broncos 24–10.

Be warned, if members of the business elite can lose everything in a sexual harassment complaint, so can you.

As details from the NFL’s investigation into Richardson’s misconduct began to surface, it became apparent that his continued ownership was no longer viable. Not only would he be forced to divest, but all signs of his ownership would be expunged. On June 10, 2020, the Carolina Panthers removed the statue of his likeness from the concourse of the Panthers home field at Bank of America Stadium.

It now appears that a similar organizational culture existed with the, soon to be renamed, Washington Redskins.[3] It is not beyond the realm of possibility to envision current owner, Dan Snyder, facing a similar fate as Richardson. While Snyder and Richardson had access to the very best advice, no one warned them that their inappropriate behaviour or that of their managers could lead to downfall and disgrace. Be warned, if members of the business elite can lose everything in a sexual harassment complaint, so can you.

Harassment, unchecked, can create serious health problems including nervous breakdown and PTSD. Health effects aside, it is simply wrong to subject a worker to a violation of their personal space or the threat of economic loss through pressure to perform an involuntary sex act.

Unlike other workplace complaints, there is no statute of limitations on harassment. A harassment claim can encompass events and behaviours over a period of years. As the effect of sexual harassment on the victim is not unlike that of domestic abuse, it is treated similarly in legal proceedings in that victims may wait years before speaking out for fear of reprisal or loss of income. Sexual harassment is rarely a single occasion incident but an escalation of sexualization into unwanted and unwelcome behaviour.

This is not to say that people do not meet at work, fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. All of us know couples who met through work and formed healthy, fulfilling unions. Perhaps your parents met this way. Nor is this a call to never express interest in a colleague. Understand that if you ask a colleague for a date and get a “No” to leave it at that. To continue propositioning after an initial decline is to venture down the road of harassment.

In order to inoculate yourself and your organization from creating an environment where sexual harassment can flourish, we must first unpack the nature of the employment contract. An employment contract is an agreement between parties for the performance of work in exchange for compensation and benefits, nothing else.

Despite the fact that we may spend more time with work colleagues than our loved ones, there is nothing in the employment contract that requires any relationship beyond that related to the performance of the work. Included in the employer’s obligation is the provision of a physically and emotionally safe workplace.

If you are a manager, supervisor or owner, you have a responsibility in maintaining a desexualized organizational culture. By this, I mean a workplace free of unwanted exposure to sexual innuendo, imagery or propositions. Even sexual joking can lead to the creation of an atmosphere where managerial power can be used for sexual harassment or coercion.

As a union steward, I have participated in numerous workplace investigations into sexual harassment complaints. I have represented the accusers and the accused. I have seen ruined reputations and careers and the resulting emotional fallout first hand. It may surprise you to learn that the perpetrators are not always men.

If a harasser’s occupation is overseen by a professional association with the authority to grant licenses like teaching, engineering or nursing, that license could be revoked or suspended. Depending on your jurisdiction, the results of such disciplinary action may become public knowledge.

If you or your company have presided over an environment where sexual harassment is perpetuated, you are setting yourself up for liability and loss of reputation from which you may never recover.

To those who would contemplate a workplace romance where an unequal balance of power exists, or worse, attempt to coerce sex through supervisory authority, I say “there is nothing that the world of romance or sex can offer that will compensate you for the hell your life will become should such an overture result in a sexual harassment complaint.”

[1] https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/12/17/jerry-richardson-carolina-panthers-settlements-workplace-misconduct-sexual-harassment-racial-slur

[2] https://vault.si.com/vault/1991/10/28/the-franchise-jerry-richardson-quit-the-baltimore-colts-over-a-250-raise-in-1961-parlayed-a-hamburger-stand-into-a-fortune-and-now-could-end-up-owning-an-nfl-team

[3]https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/us/washington-redskins-sexual-harassment-allegations/index.html