#6things: The Best Victim Blaming I Ever Did See, Conference Hos & Why You Annoy People

Conference “Ho”s Come Before Bros

After a long week at three different conferences, I feel puffy, tired and not down for this guy’s BS. While this is kinda, sorta relevant to a software CEO, explain it to Clinch’s Shane Gray (@shanedgray) or SmartRecruiters’ Jerome Ternyck. Or maybe give it a mention to Workology’s Jessica Miller-Merrell (@jmillermerrell) or the recently acquired Talent Function’s Elaine Orler (@elaineorler). While not all of the aforementioned are CEOs, they are the names and faces we associate with their brands. Anyway…

In this week's #6Things @marenhogan tackles racial tension & HR w/ @ResumeCrusade's help: Share on X

Speaking of Acquisition…

Talent Function Meets Talent Sonar, and over the course of #HRTechConf they showed us that they’re planning to make beautiful music together. Read the full release here. Elaine Orler does SO much for the industry, this is going to be amazing. (MarketWired)

You down with PIC (Performance I Create)?

Chris Fields (@ResumeCrusade) has thrown it down on why HR cannot ignore racial tension in America right now. It’s quite frankly too important, and WHO, more than our colleagues of color in HR, have more experience and ability to say so? As Fields says after a laundry list of recent occurrences, “at some point, silence becomes complicit”. Have you said anything about the following? Why or why not? When have you called out a fellow HR pro or recruiter or LEADER for something that sounds like the below:

• Fireman says, “Saving the life of one dog is more rewarding than saving a million niggers.”
• Fire Chief says, “Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach) just added his name to the list of no good niggers.”
• President Trump says, “Don’t you wish that when one of these guys disrespects our flag that the owners would fire those sons of bitches…fire them.”
• Jourdan Rodrigue, the reporter who Cam Newton childishly said, “It’s funny to hear females talk about routes,” is racist. In a May 2013 tweet, Rodrigue said, “The earth moves at 450+ mph that’s 10 times triller than NASCAR Dale Earnhart’s a BITCH NIGGA.”

Maren’s note: I wrestled with whether or not to include the use of curse words and the N-word above. For me, I decided to go ahead, because if you believe the above words are NSFW, then why are you allowing yourself to stay silent. Your whole life is work….(Defiantly Different)

Also WIMMIN are Always, and Forever TO BLAME

Gah, I hate doing this. I wish I didn’t HAVE to do this. Harvey Weinstein is a terrible predatory person. As many stories, settlements and even recordings tell, he has harassed, raped, forced himself on and assaulted woman after woman during his time in Hollywood. Sadly, as more stories have come out, the inevitable victim blaming has begun. From various women in the space who I absolutely respect and I believe have unequivocal support for women in their hearts, I have seen statements of blame pour out about how the women who have achieved fame since their harassment was mercifully over, are to blame for not coming out sooner (Weinstein apparently starting this behavior as early as the 1980s in London).

They are, in some minds, “worse” than the man who badgers this tearful woman on this recording (give it a listen, it will curdle your stomach, it starts with “I’m telling you right now, get in here.”) However, every industry has this and ours is no different. I would challenge the women who believe that Gwyneth, Meryl, Angelina are to BLAME for Harvey Weinstein’s horrific behavior, to go ahead…name names if you believe the responsibility to be on YOUR shoulders. The woman in the recording went STRAIGHT to the police:

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a Filipina-Italian model, was 22 when she was invited to Weinstein’s office in the Tribeca neighbourhood of New York. He lunged at her, groping her breasts and attempting to put a hand up her skirt while she protested. She went straight to the police. The New Yorker published an audio tape recorded when she was equipped with a NYPD wire tap. In the recording, Weinstein begs her to join him in his hotel room.

I’ve been harassed and I know many MANY of the women in this space have been as well. I’ve never gone on Facebook and called a dude out. Why? Because no matter how high you get in this space or in any space, the patriarchy still exists man! Rose McGowan had her Amazon pilot pulled this PAST YEAR for her statements on Weinstein; her twitter was recently revoked after she went after powerful men in her industry. In 2004, a reporter had the story ready to GO (Meryl, Gwyneth and Angelina were powerful then too) and it was quashed. Hence, the silent network of women warning women, behind the scenes (just like in our own industry) in order to circumvent the mind-boggling rules that seem to apply ONLY to us. For those who may think that once women reach a certain stage, they have both the responsibility and/or the ability to report predatory men, I give you the tweets that got Rose McGowan suspended:

As Rose McGowan returned to Twitter after a temporary ban with new accusations against Jeff Bezos and Amazon, studio head Roy Price was suspended for a separate sexual harassment claim.

In a series of tweets Thursday, the actress claimed that Harvey Weinstein — who she called “HW” — raped her and that she had warned the head of Amazon about the producer.

“I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof,” she tweeted at Jeff Bezos, likely referring to Price.

“I had already sold a script I wrote to your studio, it was in development. When I heard a Weinstein bailout was in the works I forcefully begged studio head to do the right thing. I was ignored. Deal was done. Amazon won a dirty Oscar. I called my attorney & said I want to get my script back, but before I could, #2 @amazonstudios called to say my show was dead. I am calling on you to stop funding rapists, alleged pedos and sexual harassers. I love @amazon but there is rot in Hollywood. Be the change you want to see in the world. Stand with truth.”

We may have the responsibility, but not the ability. If you MUST blame a woman, blame Donna Karan. Let’s all be a little bit more like Charlize Theron (@CharlizeAfrica):

“The women who have spoken about their abuse are brave and heroic and although I didn’t have a personal experience like this with Harvey Weinstein, I unfortunately cannot say I’m surprised. This culture has always existed, not just in Hollywood but across the world. And many men in positions of power have gotten away with it for far too long. We cannot blame the victims here. A lot of these women are young, just starting out in their respective fields, and have absolutely no way to stand up to a man with so much influence, much greater than theirs. If they speak up, they are shut down, and that could be the end of their career. This is all a positive step forward in changing that culture, and these young women need to know that they have a support system should anything like this happen to them. And I want you all to know I support you.”

(NPR)

Sick and Tired of Spreadsheets and Sick Days?

FastCo to the rescue. Stephanie Vozza (@StephanieVozza) appears out of the fall mists with a great article on how to pull yourself out of a work slump. Since SOOOOO many of us are nursing #conferencehangovers, I think Ben Brooks (@benbrooksny) could not have picked a better time to post to this! Best tip centers around building your business bucket list, essentially what you’d do in the next 90 days if you only had 90 days. (FastCo)

Well, MAAAAAYBE I’ll listen to the MIT guy

There has been a lot of back and forth about AI. Some saying it’s gonna change our industry, some saying it’s a lot of bunk and others saying everyone else (‘cept them of course) doesn’t really understand the whole concept. Here is an article that actually made sense to me and summed up some of my frustration with the conversations happening around AI (especially in our space). Some highlights from the article:

• We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.
• Mistaken predictions lead to fears of things that are not going to happen.
• Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
• Suppose a person tells us that a particular photo shows people playing Frisbee in the park. We naturally assume that this person can answer questions like, What is the shape of a Frisbee? Roughly how far can a person throw a Frisbee? Can a person eat a Frisbee? Roughly how many people play Frisbee at once? Can a three-month-old person play Frisbee? Is today’s weather suitable for playing Frisbee? Computers that can label images like “people playing Frisbee in a park” have no chance of answering those questions. Besides the fact that they can only label more images and cannot answer questions at all, they have no idea what a person is, that parks are usually outside, that people have ages, that weather is anything more than how it makes a photo look, etc.

The rest of the article is great, especially when it calls out the Hollywood scenario, which is that the world is exactly as it is today, but with one new twist. When we fall into these thinking “traps” it muddies our ideas of how we can use AI in our space. Good recommendation from John Sumser (@JohnSumser). (MIT Tech Review)

BONUS LINKS:

Boss harassing you? Man Who Has it All, Explains It All. (via Christine Assaf)

These words annoy people. Stop using them. Or at least circle back. (via Cyndy Davis)

Firm behind Fearless Girl statue underpaid female workers, feds. Even though this is from the NYPost and maybe possibly a lie, I am linking to it. (via Josh Akers)

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash