No. This is a a modern work setting, not a 1940’s workplace. Clark isn’t a 20-something intern. As a man in a white-collar job in the US, if you want to have any sort of career, you learn to keep your eyes above the neck. Even if they aren’t looking, there’s always a chance someone else in the office will see your gaze wandering, and you could find yourself in HR talking about sexual harassment.
No doubt there are men who can’t control themselves; no doubt there are still plenty of hostile work environments. But most men, in most corporations learn to be extremely cautious about behavior. When I was a new manager, I was so paranoid about this I’d leave the door ajar when having 1-on-1s with my women employees. That was excessive, but I was new, and at the company I was at we’d had more sexual harassment training than any other single kind, and it new managers got an extra dose. I was terrified of making a mistake. And forget about flirting.
So this one falls flat for me. Clark here isn’t being inhumanly controlled: he’s just being an average guy in a modern corporate environment who wants to keep a clean record and stay out of awkward HR conversations.
No. This is a a modern work setting, not a 1940’s workplace. Clark isn’t a 20-something intern. As a man in a white-collar job in the US, if you want to have any sort of career, you learn to keep your eyes above the neck. Even if they aren’t looking, there’s always a chance someone else in the office will see your gaze wandering, and you could find yourself in HR talking about sexual harassment.
No doubt there are men who can’t control themselves; no doubt there are still plenty of hostile work environments. But most men, in most corporations learn to be extremely cautious about behavior. When I was a new manager, I was so paranoid about this I’d leave the door ajar when having 1-on-1s with my women employees. That was excessive, but I was new, and at the company I was at we’d had more sexual harassment training than any other single kind, and it new managers got an extra dose. I was terrified of making a mistake. And forget about flirting.
So this one falls flat for me. Clark here isn’t being inhumanly controlled: he’s just being an average guy in a modern corporate environment who wants to keep a clean record and stay out of awkward HR conversations.