When I read that Sharon Osbourne was leaving “The Talk“, the first thing that came to my mind was the song “Brand New Day,” from “The Wiz” – Diana Ross with a broad smile and a short fro, dancing around in her silvery-white dress.
I was like (singing):
Everybody look around
‘Cause there’s a reason to rejoice you see…
That’s not to celebrate Sharon losing her job. I’ve lost enough jobs and never even gotten jobs enough to not want to celebrate that. No, my celebration is for the women left behind, especially Sheryl Underwood and Elaine Welteroth, who will not have to endure the torture of working with someone who’s been so unabashedly disrespectful to them on-air.
I got my first job at 17; I’m now 41, and I’ve had many jobs over those years. Every job I’ve had in the last 13 years (except for one that I quit after two weeks) I filed a complaint with human resources regarding workplace harassment and racial discrimination. And every time, little to nothing was done about it. They’d say they’d launch an investigation, and most times, they’d come back with “the appropriate action has been taken.” And yet I’d see the very person I complained about get promoted while I stayed behind. I’d see the person I complained about keep their job, while I got fired.
As a Black kid growing up, I’d heard it said that you have to work twice as hard to get half as much. While I didn’t totally dismiss that, I didn’t exactly heed it either. Growing up, I didn’t experience too much overt racism. Sure systemic racism was still a constant, but as a kid I really didn’t feel its weight. It wasn’t until I became a working woman that I really began to see how this invisible virus called racism was affecting me personally.
And the funny thing is, there would be a sprinkling of other Black people on these jobs to whom the same thing was happening, give or take, and instead of having the mentality of we’re better together, they would just watch as I went under. As painful as that truth can be, I actually understand. The stakes are high once you enter the workforce. People got bills to pay, mouths to feed, or just career goals they want to achieve. So unfortunately, in those situations, it’s not about “us”, it’s more like better you than me.
That’s not to say that workplace harassment is the singular domain of people of color or members of a protected class. It can, and does, happen to anybody who doesn’t go along to get along, who’s not a “yes person.”
When I was in college, 20 years ago, one of my favorite case studies I studied was the Challenger space shuttle explosion. Now you may be thinking what does this have to do with anything, but stick with me. You may also be thinking, damn what were you studying in college astrophysics, aerodynamics, aerospace engineering? Nope, none of that. Matter of fact, I don’t even know what subject you have to be proficient in to work on a spacecraft.
What I studied was good ‘ole human communication – social science, not go-to-space science. And what was so fascinating to me, learning about the events that led up to the Challenger explosion, was that it could all have been prevented if they would have just listened to the low-level scientist working on the project who warned that somethin’ somethin’ somethin’ somethin’ just ain’t right.
If you’re truly interested in this topic and want to know more about it, I implore you to do the research. But from what I understood of it, the gist of the case was that this was a highly anticipated launch. They were sending civilians, for example a teacher, into space for the first time, and the project had already been put off several times. So that’s the backdrop that some low-level scientists (low-level, meaning comparatively they were not the CEO level, or VPs, the manager levels, they were like base level) were in, when they discovered there was a problem with the O-rings ( again that’s some technical term I can’t explain, but suffice it to say they weren’t ackin’ quite right – burning too fast or something like that). So anyway, these low-level scientists shared this information with the higher-ups both scientist and others involved. Yet instead of heeding their warning, the low-level scientists were dismissed, only for the whole world to see, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle blow-up in mid-air while, family, friends, school children in classrooms and the whole world watched.
The theory I was studying in relation to this case study was called the Spiral of silence. It basically demonstrates how even when people know something is wrong, they don’t speak out against it if the wrongdoing is being done or permitted by someone with power or influence. I was just amazed at how horrible it is that this terrible tragedy could have been prevented, was within their means to be prevented, but instead they let it get out of control.
That’s the thing about situations that get out of control, they never start at the out-of-control point. They always start as a small thing that goes ignored, swept under the rug, invisible until it becomes too much to not see.
I think that’s probably what happened at “The Talk” with Sharon Osbourne’s outburst. She’d been getting away with that type of behavior for a long, long time – not only in reference to her 11 years at “The Talk,” but in her career in general. Undoubtedly, part of that stems from her being a woman in a male dominated industry as a manager in rock music. I’m guessing she observed the hostile culture and joined in in order to survive, in order to have a chance at a successful career.
But the thing about being human is that we can adjust, we can pivot. And we all know how to do that based on the people we’re confronted with. That is to say we may feel comfortable yelling at one person, while making sure to hold back with another, even as we’re burning with the same anger.
That was my main problem with Sharon’s behavior. Sure, she had a right to disagree, but it was the way that she did it. The fact that she was so comfortable ackin’ a plum fool on national television, without remorse, until seemingly forced, that denotes that this was not a fluke – this was a systemic problem.
Whether or not she was set up, by CBS execs ( I don’t entirely doubt that she was, I mean hay, that’s show business) on March 10, Sharon spoke from her heart, and behaved in a way that was tre disrespectful to her colleagues. And so she had to go.
I think this is a great precedent that CBS is setting. It runs along the lines that Joe Biden set for his team on inauguration night when he said if he catches anyone being disrespectful to someone, they will be fired on the spot.
That’s a good standard to set, especially in this day and age. While traditionally, employees are at the mercy of their employers, more so than ever before, technology is leveling the playing field. Many millennials and gen-Zers are choosing to go the entrepreneurial route by starting their own businesses and making money from social media.
Now you may be thinking everybody can’t be a YouTube star or social media influencer. However, in today’s social media landscape, you don’t have to have several million followers to make money. You can have much less and still make the same amount of money, or more, than you would in a traditional corporate job. If nothing else, the advent of social media as a job is narrowing the talent-pool from which traditional companies have to pull from. Just think, all those people making money on social media – and they’re literally thousands if not millions of them – would otherwise be in the traditional job market, giving companies the pick of the litter. Now it’s the litter that’s also doing some of the picking.
Many of those who do opt to go the traditional route, have no plans of retiring with a gold watch after 40 years. They’re using the F.I.R.E. movement to retire early. Still others of these generations, have such ambitious career goals, they have no problem leaving a job after just six months to a year for another opportunity. And yet others have multiple streams of income, making them less threatened by the prospect of losing a job.
But not only that, the other way technology plays a factor is that it’s aiding employees in collecting indisputable receipts of bad behavior. The days of the saving grace of he said, she said or your word against mine, are dwindling now that employees can easily and secretly record a coworker or boss acting unprofessionally; emails can easily be forwarded or printed. In addition, people are just getting so comfortable with the ubiquity of technology that they incriminate themselves, say on Instagram, Twitter, or national TV. Basically, employees have more opportunities to report bad behavior not just to human resources but to the world.
Even with that being said, the stability of a good, old-fashion job with benefits, vacation days, and free donuts in the break room, is still an awesome get. And if these companies learn to prioritize fostering a respectful work environment as much as they do gaining profits, they’re likely to find that it not only does wonders for productivity, and establishes a healthy workplace, but it’s also good for business.
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