Responsibility to behave
I have been through an interesting experience this week which caught me a little by surprise. During a meeting with a prospective client to assess each others suitability to work together I had the misfortune to have to sit across the table from a successful business person who was offensive, sexist, rude and basically boorish.
No, I am not suggesting this person was unique, I have experienced a few in my time, but in this example I was caught back by his overt sexist comments in front of one of my female staff. This caught her and I off guard and we should have taken immediate action but took some time to react.
Obviously we have complained about it and advised we wish to have nothing to do with this business, and I have discussed with all of my team how we should react and handle such situations in future. Firstly remove the offended parties from the room without hesitation and immediately - then deal with the person offending.
This post is not about the actual best way to handle such a scenario as a professional business we have processes in place to deal and respond to such issues. This post is about the ignorant / arrogant behaviour that still exists, in this era, by people who have some power (real or not) to exert over others.