No more dinners with female colleagues. Don’t sit next to them on flights. Book hotel rooms on different floors. Avoid one-on-one meetings.
In fact, as a wealth adviser put it, just hiring a woman these days is "an unknown risk." What if she took something he said the wrong way?
Across Wall Street, men are adopting controversial strategies for the #MeToo era and, in the process, making life even harder for women.Unintended consequences? Or Saul Alinsky at work?
Call it the Pence Effect,
Interviews with more than 30 senior executives suggest many are spooked by #MeToo and struggling to cope. "It’s creating a sense of walking on eggshells," said a former managing director at Morgan Stanley.
Now, more than a year into the #MeToo movement ‐ with its devastating revelations of harassment and abuse in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond ‐ Wall Street risks becoming more of a boy’s club, rather than less of one.
"Women are grasping for ideas on how to deal with it, because it is affecting our careers," said [the] president of the Financial Women’s Association and a senior vice president at Wells Fargo & Co. "It’s a real loss."
There’s a danger, too, for companies that fail to squash the isolating backlash and don’t take steps to have top managers be open about the issue and make it safe for everyone to discuss it, said an employment attorney.
"If men avoid working or travelling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment," he said, "those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint."I think this guy is looking for more client he can steer between the rock and the hard place.
On Wall Street as elsewhere, reactions to #MeToo can smack of paranoia
There are as many or more men who are responding in quite different ways. One, an investment adviser who manages about 100 employees, said he briefly reconsidered having one-on-one meetings with junior women. He thought about leaving his office door open, or inviting a third person into the room.
Finally, he landed on the solution: "Just try not to be an a---ole."
That’s pretty much the bottom line, said [the] chief executive officer of Context Capital Partners. "It’s really not that hard."
In this charged environment, the question is how the response to me #MeToo might actually end up hurting women's progress. Given the male dominance in Wall Street's top jobs, one of the most pressing consequences for women is the loss of male mentors who can help them climb the ladder. Suggesting the old system was set up to help find cooperative 'rising stars'?
"There aren't enough women in senior positions to bring along the next generation all by themselves," said Lisa Kaufman, chief executive officer of LaSalle Securities. "Advancement typically requires that someone at a senior level knows your work, gives you opportunities and is willing to champion you within the firm. It's hard for a relationship like that to develop if the senior person is unwilling to spend one-on-one time with a more junior person."
My favorite boss mentored me, coached me, gave me opportunities, but with very little "one-on-one time". Perhaps somebody is hyperventilating here.
Men have to step up, she said, and "not let fear be a barrier."
You're not paranoid if half the world thinks it's your fault because you're male.
| No more than a quarter. At least half of women aren’t that silly, but unfortunately there’s no way to tell until afterward who is which. |