ETHICS: Badromance (TLDR PROTECT WOMEN)

“I hope the case encourages students, especially men, to think of their subordinates and colleagues as human beings with real feelings and to treat them accordingly.”(Bearden) hit me. As women we are usually considered playthings to the people that are attracted to us, and I don’t think men understand the innate power disparity that exists when you as a woman are exposed to have romantic or sexual involvement in your personal life, and therefore deemed deserving of shame and ridicule at whatever capacity is allowed (in this case comments from colleagues and a literal disciplinary meeting with her manager). In every instance of this story, Elizabeth was blindsided to personal information being shared with her entire workforce, and had to navigate that on top of her professional demands, while her male pursuer was let off the hook. I agree with the experts that Elizabeth should leverage her value within the company to demand fair treatment, and should ultimately seek employment elsewhere regardless of the result. It is clear that while she brings a lot of value to the company, they do not value her personally, and instead wish to punish her for the mistake of being taken advantage of by a superior at the company. At the end of the day I can hold her at no fault because it was someone higher up and more established that pursued and discarded her before continuing the exact same behavior on a newer and more vulnerable colleague… there is both a power inbalance and a pattern of behavior that made Elizabeth a clear victim in this situation. Elizabeth should have had the support of an HR team at her company to protect her from this situation, but instead the office culture re-enforced the archaic “it’s your fault because the girl is not supposed to give in but a man is always supposed to try” teasing and punishment. If I was a manager, I would immediately report Brad for anti-harassment counseling and create strict in-office policies to prevent against both visual relationships within the office, and anti-harassment policies which would make the kind of comments Elizabeth experienced a cause for disciplinary action. Elizabeth is a professional who does not deserve to experience collective bullying and dismissal from her entire office, nor does she deserve for her professional life to take a hit due the actions of other people. Instead of telling her to stiffle her emotions and submit to unfair and toxic workplace treatment, I would want her to feel comfortable and confident and therefore perform her best- I would allocate any counseling resources and requests that would make her feel comfortable. Additionally I would investigate the reasons for this shift in her job role and make sure there’s no case for it being tied to Brad’s relationship with Caroline’s.