Every time they start joking about sexual things I become very curious about their policy vis-a-vis sexual harassment and poisoned work environment. Like...where do you draw the line?
Indirect sexual jokes and sexual conversations and sexual imagery in the workplace are clearly outlined under most sexual harassment policies, regardless of context. It's pretty clear that, as at least partly an entertainment media group, there ostensibly appears to be common acceptance that this type of material comes with the territory and that they are all cool with it. But who knows how, say, Natalie feels about it.
But numerous stories and case studies over the years have demonstrated that lots of workers will appear to be "cool" with the sexual jokes and material for fear of being ostracized from a group, being seen as a "stick in the mud", or at worst, direct repercussions for not playing along. How do we know that a member of the podcast isn't comfortable with discussing the details of a cartoon character's dick?
Furthermore, on the subject of this type of material "coming with the territory", wasn't one of the specific black marks against Vice as an establishment that they would make employees sign non-traditional agreements about the "extreme nature of the work environment"?
From the
NY Times article
"Until recently, Vice also required employees to sign a nontraditional workplace agreement acknowledging that they would be exposed to explicit, potentially disturbing material but that they did not find such content or "the workplace environment" to be offensive or disturbing."
I seem to remember the crew on the podcast talking about how this, at best, is extremely unethical.
I mean, on it's face, it's pretty clear that everyone is fine with the jokes and laughs, but it's weirdly demonstrative of how an established workplace culture between those that appear to be friends can get to this point. How would a new employee feel about going along with this material? Would they feel pressured to be cool with it? Would weeding out potential employees that wouldn't be cool with it because they wouldn't be a "good fit" be propagating the common culture that we see in things like tech startups?
I'd be really curious to hear Austin's response.
