Weighing Sex in the Workplace

A relatively tame ad on the American Apparel factory.

Source: David McNew/Getty Images

I don't generally drive to work, but when I do, Marketplace makes my commute home much more tolerable, and not a drive goes by without some story sticking in my brain's gears. Yesterday was no exception -- they did a piece on the store so many love-to-hate, American Apparel. CEO Dov Charney's back in the news for sexual harassment. He's been accused four times, but this is the first time the charge has made it to court. A little background: the company has created repeated stirs with its provocative ad campaigns. And in the Marketplace story, reporter Ashley Milne-Tyte talked to retail consultant Patti Pao about the harassment lawsuit... and it's her comment that I've been mulling ever since. She said:

When you go work at a company you have to fit with their culture. The culture doesn't fit with you. I'm not excusing it by any stretch of the imagination, because I think it's actually kind of hideous, but that is part of the culture of the company.

I go back and forth on this, and it created quite a stir in our morning meeting. On the one hand, she's absolutely right -- as Neal so eloquently framed it, you ought not go work at the dirty joke factory if you're easily offended, and American Apparel's porny ads are no secret. On the other hand, there's a tinge of blaming-the-victim there, too, that doesn't quite sit with me. And then again, personal responsibility... and around and around I go. Of course, there's a question of degree here -- what form did the harassment take, and under what conditions. But there's a bigger question that's worth considering, thanks to Ms. Pao -- to what extent are you responsible for choosing a workplace with whose culture you mesh, and, once chosen, where's the line between taking responsibility for the choice you made and unacceptable trespass? Or do you see it in black and white? What do you think?

Sarah Handel

Tags: American Apparel | Dov Charney | sexual harassment | workplace