By Phil Riske | Senior reporter/writer
All this sexual harassment news of late got me to playing the tape back on my 45 years in the workforce, most of them in the media.
I asked myself if I thought I had ever sexually harassed someone.
No.
But that’s not the purpose of this writing.
I looked for evidence of sexual harassment in my jobs and saw a couple of cases that would qualify under today’s definition.
I was never sexually harassed.
But that’s not the purpose of this writing.
In those 45 years in the workforce, I have answered to six women supervisors and managers.
Five of those situations did not work out for the best. I either quit or was let go after two or three years.
There were several common characteristics, traits and inclinations among those female bosses:
- They tried to take on the persona of a man, which I acknowledge could be a result of their female counterparts failing to succeed because they lacked forcefulness and other characteristics of most male bosses.
- They favored younger female employees.
- They took criticism personally.
- They were unsure of their authority and tended to verbally and in other ways harass to make up for their lack of confidence.
- In most cases, they simply didn’t like men.
So, there are adjacent tentacles to sexual harassment — gender harassment and discrimination.
I have worked for Jordan Rose for eight years.
That’s worked out just fine.
