We need general agreement about what constitutes sexual misconduct ranging from the uncomfortable to the egregious. When people are accused, as is the case now with NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, it’s difficult to achieve concensus on the seriousness of a given offense. To this end, I’ve proposed the adoption of a Spectrum of Sexual Misconduct at Work. It is not a hierarchical list of exactly what constitutes poor judgment and what is flat-out outrageous behavior, and various actions in-between, but rather a continuum for assessing whether an accused person deserves to be cautioned, receive some punitive action or lose their job.
The SSMW should prove useful for individuals, groups, organizations and governments and is open to their adaptation. The spectrum is described here on this blog site and more extensively in an article for the Harvard Business Review.
As with much human activity, precise delineations among behaviors is difficult and what constitutes offense often varies. We are now coming off four years of a U.S. president who could get away with saying almost anything. In his words, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose voters. But before we let people get away unscathed with sexual misconduct or lose careers to false or exaggerated accusations, we need serious work toward defining the full range of sexual misconduct. We can’t keep letting this task go unaddressed.
Photo by Philipp Wüthrich on Unsplash
