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OUTED FOR A DECADE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ABUSE
Brigitte Kimichik • Jul 18, 2020
🏈The Washington Redskins: Outed for a Decade of Sexual Harassment and Abuse
The allegations made by 15 former female employees
and spanning more than a decade from 2006 to 2019 sound very familiar: Unwelcome advances, inappropriate touching, sexually charged comments regarding the physical appearance of female colleagues, text messages with content of a sexual nature, requests that women wear tight and revealing clothes and flirt with clients to help close sales, verbal abuse, and threats not to complain or lose their coveted jobs desired “by thousands”. According to many of these women, policies, and procedures to protect against sexual harassment and a Human Resources Department to handle complaints effectively were nonexistent. Human resources staff consisted of one full-time employee responsible for the team’s more than 220 employees.
Emily Applegate, now 31, came forward publicly, claiming her time with the club as marketing coordinator “was the most miserable experience of [her] life.” Nondisclosure agreements prevent many others from speaking publicly for fear of legal retribution if they talk negatively about the club.
One woman who left in 2019 reported, “It was my first job, so I kind of normalized it…..And it was happening to every single one of my female co-workers under the age of 40.”
Women who work in male-dominated environments can feel pressured ‘to play along’ and ‘roll with the punches.’ They think they have no choice but to accept such behavior to avoid being labeled a trouble maker and keep their jobs. In our book ‘Play Nice - Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace,’
we address this topic in great detail with real-world examples and basic communication tools—to help women combat this type of behavior as a victim, and to help men and women when they are bystanders. Male intervention is especially helpful since men will listen to men.
It is troubling that three years after the launch of #MeToo, nothing has changed for the Washington Redskins. We suspect the same is true for many other organizations. As we note in Play Nice, the consequences of a sexual harassment scandal can be quite devastating. When #MeToo launched, every company and organization should have immediately conducted internal or outside reviews of their sexual harassment policies and procedures, including interviewing employees for a culture check, to allow for needed corrective action. The owner, Dan Snyder, and former long-running team president, Bruce Allen, were not personally implicated by these 15 women. However, they likely knew of the sexist behavior and verbal abuse that continued and was tolerated for more than a decade, fostering a sexist and toxic culture. Claiming as owner or president that you did not know about any problem is not sufficient to avoid the potential reputational and monetary consequences. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks found out the hard way. Mark Cuban claims he asked his then HR director (Buddy Pittman) if he was aware of any issues, however, merely asking the question, was not sufficient. As it turned out, Dallas Maverick’s corporate office suffered from a pervasive sexual harassment problem, not contained even after Pittman’s hiring to update the organization’s sexual harassment policies, which was before Cuban’s ownership. The fallout was painful
for the Dallas Maverick’s organization. Thursday night, during Cuban's "Ask Me Anything with Mark Cuban" radio show on SiriusXM, Cuban had this message
for Dan Snyder and the Redskins: "If you know Dan Snyder, if you’re involved with the Redskins, if you connect to them, tell Dan and tell his senior management you’ve got to just recognize what you did right and what you did wrong,” Cuban said. “You have to accept the mistakes you made. That’s painful. I made a lot of mistakes. And that’s the only way this is going to get resolved."
The Washington Redskins have responded to the allegations: “The…football team takes issues of employee conduct seriously….While we do not speak to specific employee situations publicly, when new allegations of conduct are brought forward that are contrary to these policies, we address them promptly,” the team said.
What action is the Redskin’s organization taking in response? Several employees have abruptly departed, including Alex Santos, the team’s director of pro personnel, and Larry Michael, the club’s longtime radio voice. The club has also contracted outside D.C. firm, Wilkinson Walsh, to conduct a thorough independent investigation and assist with new employee standards going forward. We ask, how about releasing the remaining accusers from their NDA's so they can come forward publicly without retribution?
Pursuant to an excerpt from our book Play Nice: “As the owner or head of a company, learn more about the process for determining whether there is a sexual harassment problem. When was the last time the company did an anonymous culture survey? What were the results? If issues were identified, how were they handled? Were policies and procedures updated to address noted issues going forward? Did the company identify offenders and take action? What if the company tightened its policies and procedures and provided incentives for reporting, compliance, and enforcement? What about real support and encouragement for victims, hiring more women in leadership positions to improve the male-dominated culture, and implementing better controls to establish equal status in worth and pay?”
What if anything is the NFL going to do? It is time for real action and guidelines for team owners to follow, including requiring all teams to have regular all staff training for sexual harassment prevention, unconscious bias, and anti-racism, effective mechanisms to report sexual harassment without retribution, and proper staff to handle and process complaints.
Bottom line: If a company’s work culture can be changed with swift and meaningful action, morale and employee performance are likely to improve and, eventually, positively impact the health, prosperity and reputation of the organization.
We should reward #upstanders and encourage companies to support #MeToo and to handle sexual harassment violations with transparency, respect, responsibility and accountability. Only then will we move the needle and #changetheculture to a more healthy and prosperous environment, free from #abuse and #workplacesexualharassment.
#TimesUp. Let’s #playnice. For more info on this topic and other related issues, check out “Play Nice - Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace,”
and join us at www.thesandboxseries.com.
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