Re:Google says its sex misconduct policy change doesn't appl...
by SilasX on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @12:05PM
(#18495416)
>How did their support of sexual misconduct in the past further the goal of maximizing profit? Is there a known metric that shows how profitability increases after a given percentage of harassed workers?
To look at the issue from the amoral, profit-maximizing perspective...
It's not that the harassed workers are a benefit; they are indeed a cost, in terms of lower productivity and legal risk.
Rather, it's that the difficulty of pushing back against the high-paid harassers is a cost, and insta-firing them (or even reprimanding them in a way that makes them want to leave) can hurt profitability because of the difficulty of replacing them.
And, though I shudder to say it, "being able to harass underlings" -- to some executives -- functions as a kind of non-monetary compensation.
To look at the issue from the amoral, profit-maximizing perspective...
It's not that the harassed workers are a benefit; they are indeed a cost, in terms of lower productivity and legal risk.
Rather, it's that the difficulty of pushing back against the high-paid harassers is a cost, and insta-firing them (or even reprimanding them in a way that makes them want to leave) can hurt profitability because of the difficulty of replacing them.
And, though I shudder to say it, "being able to harass underlings" -- to some executives -- functions as a kind of non-monetary compensation.