This Week’s Work Problem: When a company leaves you to handle a crisis alone
When employers fail their duty of care to assault victims, managers experience secondary victimization, too.
TRIGGER WARNING: Today’s issue discusses issues of sexual assault.
Hey everyone.
Today’s issue is pretty serious, so let’s just get into it.
When sexual assault happens at work, employers have clear legal obligations. Once someone in a supervisory role is alerted to allegations, the company has a duty to promptly take steps to end the harassment and protect the worker from further sexual harassment and retaliation.
But when a direct report actually comes forward and reports sexual assault, and the company chooses silence (or the bare minimum) over action, the people manager becomes the buffer between a traumatized employee and the organization. They are left to support the employee, manage the situation, and navigate the fallout, but I have a lot of thoughts about this unhealthy dynamic.
