美国国家公共电台 NPR In A Crisis Of Sexual Harassment, Whither The Office Romance?

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The near-daily stream of revelations of sexual harassment¹ has become a cultural crisis. So we asked one of our cultural correspondents to think about the place where many of these incidents seem to happen - the workplace, where people meet and date and fall in love, but where power can be abused. NPR's Neda Ulaby considers the state of the office romance.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE²: Given that I work in a newsroom, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by how many office romances in the movies take place there, like "Broadcast News" from 1987 or "His Girl Friday" from 1940, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HIS GIRL FRIDAY")

CARY GRANT: (As Walter Burns) We've got something between us nothing can change.

ROSALIND RUSSELL: (As Hildy Johnson) Oh, well, I suppose you're right in a way, Walter.

GRANT: (As Walter Burns) Sure I'm right.

RUSSELL: (As Hildy Johnson) I am fond of you, you know.

GRANT: (As Walter Burns) That a girl.

ULABY: So a real-life copyeditor might have had these movies in mind when she started a new job about 10 years ago.

CAROLYN HUCKABAY: I got to the paper and I noticed this really cute boy who was a senior editor. And that was Brian.

ULABY: Brian Howard, the cute senior editor, eventually married Carolyn Huckabay. Recently they had a baby. But when their romance sparked at Philadelphia City Paper, they ignored potential pitfalls³.

HUCKABAY: We were just like, I think you're cute. You think I'm cute. Let's do it.

ULABY: OK. University of Alabama law professor Daiquiri Steele says there are studies that show office romances can increase job satisfaction, motivation and morale⁴ overall.

DAIQUIRI STEELE: Office romances have also been found to lead to increased creativity, to add more dynamic energy to the workplace.

ULABY: But when they go wrong, she says, former office romances can lead to decreased productivity, morale and charges of sexual harassment.

STEELE: Employers have not figured this out.

ULABY: A lot of us haven't. You may have heard a certain kind of person bemoaning⁵ that office romances may wither⁶ away because of complaints about sexual harassment. Let's hear what the feds have to say about that. Chai Feldblum of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (ph).

CHAI FELDBLUM: There is no way we are going to stop office romances. And that should not be what we are setting out to do.

ULABY: The commissioner⁷ recently co-wrote a report on workplace harassment.

FELDBLUM: It doesn't need to be the end of office romances. It needs to be a catalyst⁸ for employers to think about what they don't want happening in their workplaces that will cause people to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to show up at work.

ULABY: Some employers ignore office romances. Others completely ban them. Others, like NPR, discourage romances between supervisors¹⁰ and the workers who report to them. Yet another approach suggests disclosing relationships to HR to ensure they're truly consensual. Law professor Daiquiri Steele says that might sound like a buzzkill, but consider the consequences of an ugly work breakup.

STEELE: There can be an instance where the one that does not want out continues to pursue.

ULABY: That might start to feel like harassment. Or say a supervisor⁹ ends things with an employee.

STEELE: And almost as a revenge measure, for lack of a better term, for being dumped, then the one who did not want out now claims that the entire office romance was sexual harassment and now claims that it was indeed unwelcome.

ULABY: So disclosing consent actually helps employers and employees protect themselves. None of this occurred to our office lovebirds from earlier in the story. When Brian Howard first asked his co-worker, Carolyn Huckabay, if she wanted to come and see the Phillies play baseball...

BRIAN HOWARD: There was a pause after I asked it.

ULABY: And he thought, oh, no. It's now awkward with my co-worker.

HOWARD: So I said, yeah, we should get the whole office together and go to a Phillies game. So...

HUCKABAY: Our first date was chaperoned by 12 of our closest colleagues.

ULABY: That's a story of good boundaries and reading signals correctly. But take a guy who asks out his co-worker four times and gets told no repeatedly. Chai Feldblum says that might not rise to the legal level of harassment, but she says maybe now is a good time for employers to consider not changing what people think is appropriate but how they behave at work.

FELDBLUM: So a man can continue to believe that a good dating strategy is to ask someone four times because maybe she's just playing hard to get. That person can continue to believe that's a good dating strategy, but not in a workplace.

ULABY: Feldblum says employers might consider making clear that such behavior at work is unacceptable preventively between men and women or anyone else. Law professor Daiquiri Steele says that might sound like common sense.

STEELE: This is true, but I learned a long time ago that common sense is not common.

ULABY: Generally, says EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum, women understand the difference between flirtation¹¹ and harassment.

FELDBLUM: The main thing this cultural and social moment of talking about sexual harassment should give us is that men should begin to understand this as well.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HIS GIRL FRIDAY")

RUSSELL: (As Hildy Johnson) Would you mind if I sat down?

GRANT: (As Walter Burns) There's been a lamp burning in the window for you, honey. Here.

RUSSELL: (As Hildy Johnson) Oh, I jumped out that window a long time ago, Walter.

ULABY: Listening to each other, making sure we're on the same page might not be shutting workplace flirtations down, but making them work a whole lot better. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。

4 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

5 bemoaning   

v.为（某人或某事）抱怨( bemoan的现在分词 )；悲悼；为…恸哭；哀叹

参考例句：

• They sat bemoaning the fact that no one would give them a chance. 他们坐着埋怨别人不肯给他们一个机会。
• The rest were disappointed, miserable creatures in unwarm beds, tearfully bemoaning their fate. 剩下那些不幸的人，失望的人在不温暖的被窝里悲泣自己的命运。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

6 wither   

vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡

参考例句：

• She grows as a flower does-she will wither without sun.她象鲜花一样成长--没有太阳就会凋谢。
• In autumn the leaves wither and fall off the trees.秋天，树叶枯萎并从树上落下来。

7 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

8 catalyst   

n.催化剂，造成变化的人或事

参考例句：

• A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
• The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。

9 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

10 supervisors   

n.监督者，管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
• Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句

11 flirtation   

n.调情，调戏，挑逗

参考例句：

• a brief and unsuccessful flirtation with the property market 对房地产市场一时兴起、并不成功的介入
• At recess Tom continued his flirtation with Amy with jubilant self-satisfaction. 课间休息的时候，汤姆继续和艾美逗乐，一副得意洋洋、心满意足的样子。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险