Behavior Is Character

A person's behavior is the truest sign of what they believe.

It was easy to miss, but just two weeks ago, yet another woman stepped forward with an allegation of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump.

She's the 27th. Twenty. SEVENTH.

It's easy to sweep it under the rug and say, "He's a flawed character. Nobody's perfect. They're just accusations; he hasn't been convicted. That behavior doesn't reflect his policies or values."

Let me be clear: behavior ?? reflects ?? values.?

What does any of this have to do with LinkedIn, a professional networking platform, you ask?

Well, 38% of women have reported experiencing sexual harassment at work, and 60% of women say they have experienced unwanted sexual attention, coercion, crude conduct, or sexist comments in the workplace.

Also worth noting: 85% of people who experience sexual harassment never file a formal legal charge, and approximately 70% of employees never complain internally.

I believe that, because I’m one of them.

The first time I encountered harassment at work was because I was chewing gum on the sales floor. It was against company policy, but I had just eaten lunch and wanted to freshen up before speaking with customers.

My manager saw me, grabbed me by the neck and held me against the wall. He threatened to write me up if he ever saw me chew gum on the sales floor again.

Nobody saw, and I never said anything because he was well-liked and I was on track for a promotion and afraid of making the wrong waves.

I was 23. He was in his early 40s.

Just a few years later, I was a manager at a bustling NYC yoga studio. The owner was something of a Svengali: swooping into town at random, changing our schedules at a moment's notice, and sweeping the management team – primarily young, fit women – off for wine-soaked dinners at trendy restaurants.

I loved my work and team, but I couldn't stand him.

I managed to stay (mostly) safe during these escapades by never drinking more than two glasses of wine, and generally flying under the radar.

After one such evening, he asked me and a fellow female manager to accompany him back to "the apartment": our female director usually lived there, but he was the official renter, and typically stayed there during his jaunts into town.

I'd previously visited the apartment many times, as it was the de facto company headquarters.

He'd gathered us, ostensibly, to discuss our dual promotions: one of us would manage the flagship studio, and another would manage a new space uptown.

Instead, he required that we allow him to give us foot and back massages before any conversation happened.

I let him do that. Why? My thinking was that if I let him do that, I would leave with my life.?

Yes, I felt that unsafe.?

My body shook the entire train ride home, and I quit just two months later. That particular ex-boss later pled guilty to tax evasion, paying the IRS $2.5 million in restitution.

Not unlike Donald Trump, who last year was found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. The jury awarded her $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. At a second trial this past January, she was awarded an additional $83 million in damages for his defamation of her character.

Look, there are many key issues facing our country today: the economy, endless foreign wars, tech monopolies and digital censorship, immigration, the list goes on.

Call me a single-issue voter, but I just don't think someone who serially abuses women is the right person to handle ANY of the above.?

The first instance of Donald Trump being accused of sexual misconduct was in the 1970s. With 27 separate allegations against him, that means that every two years, for the past 50 years, Donald Trump has – at the very least – been accused of sexual harassment and/or abuse. Several of which occurred in the workplace.

Also? One of those claims was made by a girl who was just 13 years old at the time of the attack.?

If there's one thing I learned while managing that hip yoga studio, it's that the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. If you're a liar, you'll lie about anything. If you're a cheat, you'll cheat about anything. If you're an abuser, you'll abuse anyone.

Values inform behavior. Behavior IS character.

Donald Trump's complete lack of character is an insult to those of us who actually do try to be decent people, even though we know we're not perfect.?

Am I proud of how I handled my own experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace? No. I was young and afraid of the repercussions of exercising my rights.?

But I know better now, I would do better now, and I'm sharing this here so that the young women who are coming up in professional America in 2024 know that they don't need to stand for this shit in the workplace, or anywhere else for that matter.