It’s a cross between ego and self-loathing, set in an unscripted, naturalistic, decades-long show. You’re going to hate it, but you won’t be able to turn it off without real action!
So much for the logline. Over the past week, I’m sure my idea for a new limited series has already been developed and sold. Who wouldn’t want to profit from the story of Harvey Weinstein, the man who profited from the very stories playing out around him right now. The most meta American Crime Story yet.
Pitchless, I’m left alone with nagging thoughts of true consequence: how to make this moment mean something. Here are a few questions I still can’t shake: Now that we have aired the grotesquely soiled laundry of one sickening Dinowood beast, what will it take to mark this a true cultural inflection point? Can we capitalize on the cacophony of notables now speaking out to spur action that would seriously impede the abuse of power in our industry? Can we establish concrete measures to make this really stick? Should we expand the ambition of this moment beyond entertainment, and even beyond sexual harassment, to include all abuse of power, gender and industry agnostic?
I want to say yes to answer these questions. I want to say that the powerful exec who asked me to strip in a Florida hotel pool, before trying to get me to snort cocaine in his room, before trying to kiss me when I refused, is going to have his day because now, I am in a position to name him. I want to make sure that young execs around him don’t follow his lead anymore. I also want to know that the exec who verbally abuses employees for not responding to text messages within seconds on weekends and holidays, will no longer be indoctrinating surrounding execs with toxic behavior. And that anyone who throws a cell phone at their colleague, and needs to be told to apologize, will no longer be enabled.
But I, like Sergeant Shultz and so many others, can say nothing without some fundamental change. The financial, professional and social consequences are too grave. With President Obama, Hillary Clinton and even Jane Fonda unable to take down the ole Dinobeast, the odds are against us. The potency of Goliath’s weaponry: lawyers, Human Resources advisers, and most of all, the checkbook, have silenced the most powerful among us.
In everyone’s defense, I don’t believe most people who are speaking out now, who were not victims themselves, had any idea about the severity of the Dinobeast’s actions. This, however, does not change the imperative: we need new standards and practices and maybe even the law to end this run for good.
Here are a few ideas to consider that could help tip the scales. I don’t know if these need to be addressed at the federal level, by the Department of Labor, or at the state and local level. I do know that to make this moment real, we must unmask the systematic protection of these behaviors.
Proposed – Rule #1:
All job descriptions must be specific and publicly available.
If it can’t go in a public job description, don’t ask anyone to do it. No one, and especially HR professionals, should enable, condone or protect a boss whose requests fall outside this boundary. This is the same rule we teach teens just getting their first phone. If you don’t want Grandma to see it, don’t post it. For example, you like massages at 3pm with your after-lunch martini? Call a masseuse. You like sex in your hotel room at TIFF? Save your load and your film for Berlin where prostitution is legal. Want to beat someone up, verbally or physically? Call your shrink, then a boxing trainer. Need to be high at 11am to get through another afternoon of meetings? Go home and chill out until you can come back and be a professional. No employee should ever be put in the position of covering anything up if it causes harm to other employees. If it’s not in the job description, you and anyone complicit in supporting your behavior (HR and legal advisers), should be sent packing.
Proposed – Rule #2:
Make contract subterfuge illegal.
Employment pre-nuptial agreements are common and useful. They set legal expectations and limitations of an employer/employee relationship. A bad habit causing no harm to those around an exec is one thing. A bad habit which traumatizes an employee close to the exec in question is entirely another. Giving employers the ability to corner employees into cover-ups of abuse and proclivities for harm is not okay. This type of entrapment should be illegal, and the lawyers and HR advisors who partake in crafting such language, or witness the abuse without doing anything about it, should be fined, or even disbarred depending on the severity.
Proposed – Rule #3:
Financial payouts must be reported to a governing authority and made public.
A government entity, probably tied to the IRS, should monitor financial payouts and maintain them in a public record so that both sides of the employer/employee equation can identify patterns. If an employee takes on new jobs every other year, receiving large payouts in the process, something could be up. With this database, any prospective new employer would have access to that data, giving them a way to decode patterns and interpret the explanations, creating a disincentive for any employee who abuses the system. Conversely, potential employees could see patterns which emerge for certain companies. Consumer watchdog organizations might then rank companies based upon their payout stats. Imagine if that data could have been accessed in the Dinobeast case years ago.
Proposed – Rule #4
All Execs promoted to or entering a senior level position must refresh their personal development with a regular class on power dynamics.
The intoxication that comes with power and success is a drug. The more senior you are, the more people see you as someone who can change the course of their own career, their own life. The stakes of just about everyone’s relationship with you exponentially grow. But crossing the line from ascendance to abuse is a whole different story, a very pronounced series of moments where the accolades and dollars over-nourish one's ego and re-direct it to places it shouldn’t go. To help exercise our muscles of perspective and empathy, we need a nationally administered curriculum on C-Suite Common Sense, professional development for the soul. You can greenlight in the room? Amazing, just don’t be delusional about what else you can do in the room.
The best execs inspire people by setting an example. They are hard charging and expect the same of their employees. They don’t magnify behavioral double standards. From his films, the Dinobeast learned decades ago where the line of harassment was drawn. Those stories gave him his profit and his power. It’s up to all of us to write the next script of this ongoing narrative, with steps to keep abusive execs in check, and increase our own self-awareness along the way. We must act now to put in place a new set of rules, making it more than possible, making it our duty, to sound the alarm.
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