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We have our own individual versions of truth. We place special value on ideas and ideals that are grown and nurtured in our minds. It makes us sympathetic to some people, empathetic towards others, and in some cases even apathetic towards an individual’s point of view. This is a converted audio experience. This will allow you to consume what would be an auditory expereince in the form of text coupled with visual aids indicating tone. The speaker is identified before each monologue followed by a decision point. Each choice you make has a unique outcome.
Female Accounting Employee: I appreciate you meeting with me. I’ve never been to the 11th floor! I know that you didn’t really have the time in your schedule today, but since you are about to meet with the board of directors and one of those board members are impacted, I needed to get in touch with you. There is a board member who has been accused of misconduct, but the person involved hasn’t made a formal report. It’s the kind of misconduct that could get someone in legal trouble. I think...
Do you let her keep talking?
Female Accounting Employee: I think you need to talk to Dr.Taylor on the board. I fully believe Dr.Taylor is being falsely accused because the accuser is someone with multiple HR complaints against them and has a history of stirring the pot when it comes to office gossip. I am not about to have another “boy who cried wolf” situation again. We all know what happened the last time. We had to shift the teams around to accommodate her pettiness. Frankly I find the entire situation unprofessional.
Female Accounting Employee: I don’t understand the point of giving me a meeting only to interrupt me when I am doing you a service by bringing the situation to light.
How do you proceed?
How do you handle the employee's retaliation?
Female Accounting Employee: Start with someone in her department. I don’t really know of anyone who could have seen besides those in the office she doesn’t leave.
Female Accounting Employee: I don’t think it is ethical to do nothing. Your inaction has consequences.
Ending 1: Inaction is making a decision. Whether your decision was based on not involving yourself in office politics or based on a private loyalty to a party involved, your lack of action speaks to why certain shocking allegations of misconduct go unreported in companies and industries for years, sometimes beyond the statue of limitations. Canceled culture is something that can happen even years after situations like this take place. By that point, the inaction can be viewed as negligent and reflect poorly on the company and stakeholders within the company. Doing nothing sets a company up for the risk of such incidents leaking to the press, especially if such a situation is common in the workplace. Inaction really isn’t inaction when you are in a company setting. Inaction puts you directly in the path of cancelled culture.
Select your availability:
Select your availability:
You proceed to the elevator.
Select a Floor to Investigate:
Male Sales Associate: Look, here in the sales office we found her work… unremarkable. That’s why after the first scandal with our top rep, we moved her to marketing. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just the girl calling attention to herself. There is quite literally no project she headed that performed above average. If you really want answers you have to go to HR.
How do you proceed?
Male Sales Associate: This is a situation that requires careful consideration.
What is your course of action?
Ending 2: You write a strongly worded email to the accuser informing them of the criminal repercussions of a false accusations and saying you have a zero-tolerance policy for baseless accusations. Two hours later you receive her resignation on your desk. You find out from her manager in marketing that she had headed multiple successful campaigns and we had lost her to a competitor in our field. Two weeks later the marketing team suffers more attrition and six of the accuser’s closest work mates have left the company to pursue employment elsewhere. The disgruntled employees have an interview with a larger, very well-respected paper. Before the end of the year, not only have you struggled to keep the business open but repairing the reputation of the company after being cancelled online has been next to impossible. There are daily calls of threats to you and employees for being “anti-women” and “misogynistic” even some people wishing you death. The cancellation has been effective in exposing the true culture of the company… and you played a large role in it.
Ending 3: You send a company-wide email explaining there is a zero-tolerance policy for false accusations of sexual misconduct and that there is nothing you can do about some “hurt feelings”. At the next board meeting Dr.Taylor resigns from the board, citing family issues. The accuser also hands in a resignation, along with several members of her closest work team. The company loses employees in a number of other departments including HR, sales, finance, and accounting. In the following weeks the email is leaked to press, and online community members and customers call for your resignation over your “misogynistic wording” and your personal fostering of a “hostile work environment”. You are asked by the board to resign from your position.
Ending 4: You end up sending an email to Dr. Taylor asking him about the allegations which he vehemently denies. He offers to come in to discuss the situation before the next board meeting. His appearance in the office caused a stir amongst staff, namely the staff member who originally brought the accusations to your attention. Dr. Taylor frequently mispronounces the name of the accuser and claims he didn’t know of her existence until your email. You remind him that professionally you have zero issues with his work and that while you personally have no interest in knowing the full of extent of his private life behind closed doors, accusations of this nature need to be taken seriously and he needs to prove he did not conduct himself unprofessionally. Dr. Taylor explains that he has zero contact with the staff outside of those who occasionally make appearances at board meetings. You accept his innocence, and the company continues to operate with mild attrition of staff in the marketing department. Eventually somehow, years in the future… after the passing of Dr. Taylor in a tragic helicopter accident. The company is cancelled for having a known abuser on the board of directors till his death. You are immediately forced to sell your stock in the company as the new CEO works hard to try to repair the damage caused to the company reputation.
Ending 5: The email is sent out and there is a companywide training on sexual misconduct. Beyond a few snickering staff members and eyerolls from more senior staff nothing eventful happens other a mild attrition of staff in the marketing department.
Female Acting HR Manager: In HR, we have policies against harassment, and we conduct our own investigations. I’m surprised nothing about this latest situation is here. It is wildly inappropriate that a random employee came to you directly with something like this. Without getting into details about the previous cases with this employee I can say with 100% confidence that the claims were valid, and we were able to handle the situation accordingly. What I want to know is the name of the employee who came to see you directly.
Do you reveal who told you about the scandal?
Female Acting HR Manager: I appreciate this. The harm of loud parties in these sorts of situations is immense. What I can tell you is you are welcome to talk to the accuser and extend your personal time to handle the situation with the board member. Regardless this is an HR investigation that will have to happen.
Any further questions?
Female Acting HR Manager: I don’t understand who you are protecting. What is the purpose of protecting the office gossip? Regardless I’ll find out via my own investigation and maybe see about doing something about you.
What do you do?
Ending 6: HR concluded there was in fact misconduct between the parties involved. The employee who informed you of the scandal was fired as it found she was also involved with this board member. Dr. Taylor was promptly removed from the board and replaced with another community member. The accuser ended up deciding to make a career change after repeated issues, but you personally gave her a high recommendation at her now present place of employment.
Ending 7: HR found you complicit with the on-going sexual misconduct in the company. During the investigation it was found that the employee who informed you of the scandal was fired as it found she was also involved with this board member. Dr. Taylor was promptly removed from the board and replaced with another community member. The accuser ended up deciding to make a career change after repeated issues. You were asked to resign as company head. The disgruntled employee went to the press and you were left with a poor reputation in the community.
Female Accuser: I was hoping this was about a promotion. I don’t know why I am surprised that this happened again. Quite honestly this only solidifies my decision to be done here. I am thinking about taking my two weeks of vacation as soon as I hand in my two-weeks’ notice.
What do you say?
Female Accuser: You cannot fix the company culture here. You have people who are highly respected in the office that basic strangers will go to bat for despite not having any idea what goes on behind closed doors. I can sit here and give my counter points to his diminishment of what happened. I can sit here and watch all the sheep believe his version of events completely drowning out my counterpoints supported by evidence. I learned after the first incident that I needed screenshots and video and audio of the events.
How do you proceed?
Female Accuser: And what? Give them all more to chew on? I am at the point where being in this building fills me with anxiety. I keep my head down and attempt to do my job without giving anyone a single inkling about my next move. They still find the time to be incredibly hurtful and disgusting. I frankly have suffered as I have been interviewing people to come work here. I sit across from these people lying about how wonderful my experience has been. I have been putting it off as long as possible. It didn’t help you let go of the original HR person that handled my previous case.
What do you say?
Female Accuser: I… I would ideally like to see him gone. Not like the other one. I mean finally someone held to the rules you have in that neatly typed employee handbook. Forget the titles in this case. He performed a sexual act without consent. I audibly said no only to be pinned down and have it happen anyway. You. Don’t. Have. To. Live. With. That. I do. It’s paralyzing fear is what it is… Then he had the gall to tell me we never had anything between us. If he stays here, where there are many vulnerable prey, it will happen again. Or what he moves onto his next position with a squeaky-clean record? How is that fair? People around here will sing his praises even though they weren’t there. It’s easier for people to assume he could never do something like that. His continued harassment only makes it worse. Remove him.
What do you do?
Female Accounting Manager: I mean here in accounting… a number of people have had interactions with Dr. Taylor. I think that the situation however is something you need to save for HR. You didn’t hear it from me. Just focus on WHO told you about what happened.
What do you do?
Male Mail Room Intern: I’m just an intern. I really think this is something that HR should handle.
What do you do?
Female Middle-Manager: Look, I used to work with her back when I was in sales. She is a kind and quiet person. I can tell you where her office is. I really think it is worth you hearing the story directly from her.
What do you do?
Female Customer Service Representative: I think it would be best to start from the beginning. I don’t know the accuser, but I think Dr. Taylor is really awesome whenever he comes into the office. I know he has taken people out to lunch before. But I’ve been told that’s only for people at the top of their departments, so I haven’t had the privilege yet.
What do you do?
Female Marketing Manager: She does so well here. She has led so many successful campaigns. Unfortunately, I can speak to Dr. Taylor coming here asking for her. I know it started with a lunch invite for her great performance. I know at a point after that she came in giddy for the next couple weeks. Then suddenly, and quite honestly it was a matter of weeks she came in completely disheveled before a progress report. I went in to see her and ask if she was alright, but she just said she had done something stupid and was going to need a day or two off.
What do you say?
Male Telent Acquisition Team Member: I work with the accuser and interview applicants to the marketing, sales, and accounting departments. Look, she is a nice cheerful person who works really well with me. She has never said anything about Dr. Taylor but she did ask a lot about whether or not I was happy working here. I of course, love working here, but I got the sense maybe she didn’t. I think talking to sales or marketing would help you out more.
What do you say?
Female Finance Officer: The big issue is you are sat here talking to me, your finance person when the person you really need to talk to is the accuser. Look I know she and I started working here around the same time, but I literally have never spoken to her outside of meetings. Sure, I’ve heard the chatter around the office, but why talk on something I know nothing about? I think talking to her colleague she interviews applicants with or maybe talking to one of the accountants that has definitely gone in way too deep with this whole mess is more worth your time.
Where do you go?
Ending 8: You call the board together for an emergency meeting during work hours. Dr. Taylor socialized with a number of young women from accounting on his way into the meeting room. You hand out physical copies of the employee handbook with the page on sexual harassment earmarked. You ask Dr. Taylor to read the marked page: Sexual harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. Board members and employees alike, are not to engage in any physical relationships with employees/board members as it is an ethical conflict of interest. Any stalking, physical violence, intimidation, and/or defamation will not be tolerated. You open the board room door and ask the board if they unanimously agree to remove Dr. Taylor from his position as he has broken this rule. The board unanimously agrees to remove Dr. Taylor. As he leaves, his head hangs low as the employee who informed you of the accusations trots after him. Following HR’s investigation, the employee who informed you of the scandal was fired as it found she was also involved with this board member
Final Notes: This was an exercise in understanding the complex series of decisions made in a company with a wide range of stakeholders involved. It is meant to show how cancellable offences can be appraoched from within a company before it reaches a stage of mass-media coverage. Depending on your choices some endings involved the mass-media and others did not. When it comes to maintaining employee moral and the economic stability of a company it is important to address issues regarding company culture as soon as possible in order to avoid a large scale cancellation which could impact the staff psychologically and economically. This illustration in cancelled culture ties directly to my capstone thesis which is viewable on the next page.