First off, let me dispense with the elephant in the room — Yes, the show “Survivor” is still on the air and yes, I haven’t missed any of the 39 seasons of it.
In fact, I shared lessons that employers could learn from Survivor way back in 2010.
Last week’s episode of Survivor, however, brought far more reality than most would think a “reality show” could or should bring.
There’s a lot of nuance to the episode that a short blog post can’t get into (though this podcast by Rob Cesterino gives it a try), but the show’s episode revolved around legitimate sexual harassment claims, using harassment claims for nefarious purposes, and bystander syndrome.
And it was ugly. Really ugly.
Why? Here are a few things that stood out to me from an employment perspective:
First, a female player (Kellee) complained to a producer that another male player (Dan) was a little too “touchy” and made her feel uncomfortable. To be sure, there was plenty of video evidence to back her up. The male player was given a “warning” and play continued. But here’s the thing: The female player never knew that a warning was issued and Dan worked with others to get Kellee voted out of the game immediately thereafter. Not telling the complainant what was going on with her complaint is just one of the ways the producers seem to have mishandled things.
