New York Governor can’t catch a break.

A second former aide (age 25) has now accused Cuomo of asking invasive personal questions about her sex life—would she sleep with older men, commenting he might consider relationships with women in their 20s. If true, clearly inappropriate for a boss/subordinate relationship.

Is #MeToo not resonating?

These allegations come just days after another aide detailed her experiences over several years against the governor (including kissing her without her consent), claiming in part Cuomo “created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected……he used intimidation to silence his critics….if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences.” 

The three-term governor drew praise in the early days of Covid-19 with his comforting and seemingly heart-felt and honest daily press conferences. Now, he is facing bipartisan calls for independent investigations both in to the sexual harassment claims and the failure of his office to release the full data on Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes. 

Despite the explosion of #MeToo several years ago, toxic culture of sexual harassment is continuing. What will it take for work environments to make changes? Today, no administration, company, or office should have a culture where sexual harassment and bullying exists at all. Training on inappropriate behavior, including sexual harassment, bullying, racism, and discrimination, how to identify and combat such behavior, and what to do if such behavior does not cease, should be occurring regularly from the top down, starting with the boss. 

Conversations should be open, honest and frequent. If you are the target, don’t be afraid to speak up if you feel someone is making you uncomfortable. Even if that person is the boss. Draw a firm, but gentle line of respect. Communicate in a language that your boss or superior understands. If he has three daughters, like Cuomo, ask him to stop and understand that he would not want his daughters to experience similar behavior. He would surely understand. If you are not comfortable doing so or are worried about your job, ask for help from someone you trust can speak for you. It is not easy to combat bad behavior in the moment. Especially, if the violator is someone you fear could impact your job. 

As for administration, don't take #MeToo scandals involving companies and organizations for granted. If you have not already, take the time to hit that pause button and evaluate your work culture for toxic masculinity, sexual harassment, and racism. Educating employees and leaders regularly and effectively regarding prevention is likely to engender a more healthy workplace of dignity and respect—free of expensive scandals, and ultimately improve your reputation, and your bottom line health-related costs and profitability. 

In our book ‘Play Nice - Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace,’ we address this topic in great detail with real-world examples and basic communication tools—to help women combat this type of behavior as a victim, and to help men and women when they are bystanders. Male intervention is especially helpful since men will listen to men. 

We should reward #upstanders and encourage companies to handle sexual harassment violations with transparency, respect, responsibility and accountability. We will then move the needle and #changetheculture to a more healthy and prosperous environment, free from #abuse and #workplacesexualharassment.

For more on this topic, please join us at www.thesandboxseries.com.