Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | February 17, 2020 | wbjournal.com ous, and puts everyone at risk," said Erin Jansky, the director of human resources from the Worcester Housing Authority. As they've grown more experi- enced, these women have learned how to effectively react by shutting down bad behaviors right away, reporting exchanges making them feel uncomfort- able, or removing themselves from a company altogether. Still, each situation creates an internal negotiation where women must weigh their self respect vs. their careers. "Many victims just take it, try to brush it off, forget it happened, laugh it off, or don't recognize it themselves as sexual harassment," said Jansky. Jansky warns employers against looking the other way. A "Better safe than sorry" ethos slowly is taking root because of women who are willing to share their experiences and set a new expectation for professionalism. "He would constantly comment on my legs." A decade into Sherri Pitcher's con- sumer electronics career, she was offered a position during a trade show in Las Vegas. e interview took place in a hotel room, which she found odd, but agreed F O C U S W O M E N I N L E A D E R S H I P e reality of sexual harassment leaves professional women and companies dealing with the fallout BY SARAH CONNELL Special to the Worcester Business Journal DISRESPECTED Erin Jansky, HR director, Worcester Housing Authority When she was a graduate teaching assistant, State Sen. Harriette Chandler was pressured by a professor to give him sexual favors. L ong before we knew her as the 94th president of the Mas- sachusetts Senate, Harriette Chandler worked as a graduate teaching assistant. Chandler, who went on to earn her Ph.D., remem- bers the experience with angst. "e professor made it very clear to me that he expected more than just my teaching assistance. He expected sexual favors," said Chandler. As one of the only women on campus, she felt like she was alone. "I laughed the first time he said it," she said, "to break the uncomfortable silence." Chandler feared without the paid position, she would have to abandon her graduate studies altogether. "I knew if I made a fuss, it would ruin my academic career, and I would be called a cry baby," said Chandler. "ere was no one to turn to. I wanted to say, 'Help me. is is disgusting.'" Instead, she applied to be a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and was relieved when she was to accepted. "I still had to get through the rest of that semester. I stayed as far away from him as I could," she said. Chandler's experience is hardly a thing of the past. I sat down with more than a half dozen business women from Cen- tral Massachusetts to discuss their expe- riences with workplace sexual harass- ment. Even in situations where behavior from a superior or colleague didn't rise to black-and-white sexual harassment, these gray area problematic behaviors still had lasting ramifications impacting the women's lives and, ultimately, the performance of the company. "Small slights over time can turn into a culture, and a culture where sexual harassment is accepted is toxic, danger- PHOTOS/MATT WRIGHT Some exact details of situations and company identifications were purpose- fully left out of this article, as a courtesy to the women who shared their expe- riences. For more on this decision, see Editor Brad Kane's column on Page 3.

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