The gray area of sexual harassment in the workplace is exampled by the office romances of late night comedian David Letterman. While surveys tell us that approximately 40 percent of Americans at some point in their careers and working lives participate in a workplace romance, those liaisons that occur between a supervisor, or company owner with a subordinate cross into a wholly different territory.
In fact, while the vast majority of Americans appear to view office place romances as a simple fact of life, 85% of adults find a relationship between a boss and an employee objectionable. Why? Mostly because it puts the subordinate at a disadvantage or can deeply effect the day to day politics of any office environment.
Does the subordinate feel a sense of unstated authority because of the liaison? At the other extreme, does the boss believe that trolling for romance in the shallow waters of underlings who feel less able to reject these advances, is playing fair?
For these reasons, and undoubtedly others, the vast majority of Americans object to office romances when they involve a boss and a member of his or her staff. Additionally, in spite of all of Letterman’s comedic slight of hand in revealing the extortion plot against him that sought $2 million dollars in exchange for silence about his office relationships, one has to wonder if he was completely unaware of the obvious advantage that he held over the women that he took as lovers.
Did they really have the ability to spurn his advances and still keep their careers on track? We may never know the answer to that. At least until now, none of the women involved romantically with Letterman have come forward to claim that they felt pressured or harassed in any way prior to entering into a sexual relationship with their boss. For this very reason relationships such as these fall into a gray area in regards to sexual harassment in the workplace. Without a statement that the staff member felt harassed by the romantic advances of their boss, this behavior is outside of most company rule books on personal conduct and is simply viewed as a consensual adult relationship.
Of course future revelations may put a different spin on this story, and the coming weeks and months will reveal if that will indeed be the case. In the meantime it’s fair to say that Letterman will continue to be a welcomed late night guest in homes across America.
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Other MarsVenusLiving.com Workplace Articles
Pedaling Your Way to a Fresh Start
Sexual Harrassment 3: Know Your Rights
Giving and Receiving Support in the Workplace
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: An Overivew
Sexual Harassment, Part 2: Getting Martians to Understand Boundaries
Sexual Harassment, Part 1: An Overview
Office Romances: An Unexpected Fringe Benefit
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