I bet I’m on at least one informal “shitty men” list for asking inappropriate questions in private emails.
The downside of a bad reaction is too strong, no matter the original intentions.
This isn’t written down anywhere; corporate harassment training focuses (like HR) on corporate liability.
Case in point: extremely senior search engineer Amit Singhal got fired from Google for sexual harassment. Or he would have been fired if he hadn’t suddenly resigned.
Brin always seemed to me like someone who would be impulsive enough to use his charisma, & not necessarily for good. Eric Schmidt is the other major “playboy” there. No firsthand info.
Appropriateness is a real blind spot, especially if you have ADHD or are on the autism spectrum. We have to be especially careful.
If you’re a predator in tech who just wants to abuse people… you can end up with an Uber situation fast. Even Tesla sounds gross.
But they’re often not proactive because they don’t want to enforce strict bounds at “social” events & harsh anyone’s mellow.
The stories coming out are a consequence of behavior that never got called out.