Watched ‘Swiped’ (2025), a film based
on the life of businesswoman Whitney Wolfe. I was not aware what the movie was
about before I started watching it and later discovered that an integral part
of the movie’s plot was about workplace sexual harassment. The movie genuinely
depicts the scenarios of workplace harassment which women face, as well as the
working environment in the tech startups. Although, no movie can do 100% proper
judgement to all the characters and all the events, so the movie can also be accused
of showing a one-sided story from the point of view of the lead character
Whitney. But being a biographical film, this comes hardly as a surprise.
When Whitney joins the startup, and
she was not a coder or a software engineer or big marketing name; she joins
from the scratch. The credit to spot talent in her goes to one of the founders,
Sean. And for a while, everything goes in a dream-like fashion. She is happy at
work, is appreciated by all, and the company gets its mojo and everything is
going great. But then, she starts dating another co-founder named Justin. The
movie does not even show a hint that there was anything objectionable in a
“workplace romance”. And thereby, it tries to hide a very pertinent truth about
the whole scenario about to unfold.
Workplace romance is riddled with
dangers, that is why most good companies have a policy against it. It is a
recipe of disaster. Whiteney and Justin are dating and in love, and it is not
kept a secret. After a while, the real face of Justin starts showing off, as he
starts taking credit for her work, starts sidelining her and pushing her away
from the media limelight. Perhaps, he was cunningly aware of what was going to
happen after the two broke up. The decision to break up was taken by Whiteney
after she had had enough of sidelining by Justin. Things go totally downside
after they broke up, with Justin showing totally abusive behaviour by harassing
and defaming Whitney. I wondered what Whitney was thinking when she went on
that road of workplace romance. Men are typically known to be sore losers when
it comes to handling rejections from women they like.
Later, the whole story shows how
Whiteney fought against the system which is against women as well as anyone who
takes a stand against the workplace harassment. It is an inspiring story of how
Whiteney goes on standing for what is right. But it is more of an inspiring
story because of the fact that Whiteney did not go down fighting and goes on to
achieve greater success in her career. And when a tricky situation comes again
in the next company she joined, she still stands tall. Hats off to Whitney
Wolfe and her inspiring courage.
At the same time, I can’t stop but
reflect on the root cause of all the harassment she was subjected to, which was
workplace romance to begin with. In one of my previous companies where I
witnessed absolutely toxic work culture, workplace romance was not only
tolerated but even ‘encouraged’. There was a policy banning it, but the
management just went around the policy by changing the official reporting
manager of one of the couples, to avoid detection. I knew of many colleagues,
who went on to marry other colleagues, only by seeing the encouragement of this
practice. I believe it was purely incompetence and a decision not to take a
stand, which made the senior management not respect the company policy of not
allowing workplace romance.
The truth is that workplace romance
and workplace harassment go hand in hand. Male employees, often in superior
positions in the company, if faced with rejection by attractive female
employees in junior positions, are inclined to harass them until they are
forced to resign or go emotionally broken. Whiteney Wolfe was able to come out
unscathed, and the movie shows the harassment situations very well. She went
through hell and came out safe, but unfortunately not all are strong enough
like her. And even if one woman is subjected to harassment at workplace, it is
a failure of the whole company’s policies and the senior management who are
supposed to uphold the values.
I feel like wishing that may there be
more Whitney Wolfes in the world, but I know this would be a wishful thinking.
Laws and polices are designed to protect the weakest in the community; and the
fact that the strongest ones come out unscathed of the hostile situations does
not mean slacking the rules. Multinational companies are seen to be often
lacking stricter enforcement of policies and rules because of lack of
accountability of the senior management who know their ‘time is ticking’ and
would be out of the door in a few years. So, why take stands and try to improve
the workplace environment for the employees, and why not spend most of the time
just to improve the company’s performance in the stock market, which is most
rewarding for them.
Workplace harassment should be taken
more seriously by all companies as well as by the lawmakers of every country.
And when it comes to harassment as an aftermath of workplace romance, the only
way to prevent it is not to go down the lane in the first place. I am of the
opinion that everyone should maintain a purely professional relationship at the
workplace, for one’s own safety and for the safety of others.
- Rahul
No comments:
Post a Comment