Written by Nicole Di Schino, PRINCIPAL consultant at spark compliance
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At SCCE last fall, Virginia MacSuibhne shared that she applies a “Rule of Three” to news stories.
If she comes across three different headlines on the same topic, she stops and takes a look.
Well, let me tell you, if you happen to be a lawyer, a mom, a feminist, and a compliance professional (like me), the viral story about blatant misogyny and harassment at the Cleveland law firm of Zashin & Rich has certainly crossed your feed at least three times in the last few weeks.
Soul-less and Morally Bankrupt?
For those unfamiliar, a labor and employment partner at the law firm named Jon Dileno, recently went viral for sending a threatening text to an associate who left Zashin for greener pastures shortly after returning from maternity leave. Among other choice tidbits, Delano accused her of “collecting salary from the firm while sitting on your a$$” and being “soul-less and morally bankrupt.”
But the story doesn’t end there.
In response to Dileno’s misogyny being broadcast all over social media, named partner Stephen Zashin released a mealy-mouthed, non-apology that minimized the incident. The community’s response was swift and damning. After seeing the backlash, Zashin seemed perplexed that what he referred to as a “single text” that was “sent in the heat of the moment” by an “upset” employee would cause people to question his firm’s “commitment to fair treatment, diversity and other values.”
When that nonsense didn’t go over well with the public, Zashin deleted the “apology” and replaced it with a post announcing that Jon Dileno was no longer with the firm. Zashin then went on to describe the incident as “a sad and challenging time for our firm” and referenced efforts to support and fulfill the firm’s “cultural values.”
Insincere “Apologies” and Culture Issues
Beneath my visceral reaction to all of the issues this story raises about the reality that too many working women face in America, my compliance professional brain was deeply disturbed by Stephen Zashin’s complete obliviousness to how much his “apologies” said about his firm’s culture.
It’s easy to point to the Jon Dilenos of the world as the root cause of misogynistic company culture. But perhaps even more damaging, and certainly more insidious, is all the managing partners, CEOs, boards of directors, and companies lining up to dismiss or minimize their behavior.
This is where ethics and compliance comes in.
Culture, simply put, is and must be more than words. How many companies profess to value integrity? Diversity? Doing the right thing?
As someone who writes corporate codes of conduct for a living, I can tell you, most of them.
Words Fall Short Under Stress
What does it tell employees when words like integrity are splashed all over the corporate presence, but when faced with a Dileno-situation, management reacts like Stephen Zashin did?
Or when a company minimizes and excuses bad behavior, then points, defensively, to any culturally appropriate actions that it has taken in the past as evidence that it’s really good?
Zashin’s statements - which included references to the firm’s “Diversity & Inclusion community,” and commitment to “supporting working parents” - may have been designed to convince observers that Dileno’s behavior was an aberration at Zashin & Rich, but it actually did the opposite.
They served, instead, as a clear indication that the firm’s culture issues ran deep.
How Compliance Professionals Can Help
Cultural change is hard and painfully slow.
As compliance professionals, we can be tempted to point towards necessary, politically popular, or surface-level changes, such as the formation of committees or the issuance of policies, as evidence of true, meaningful change.
But we must try to avoid this trap. Our employees aren’t easily fooled, and they aren’t blind.
Don’t be afraid to be honest
To adopt a phrase from my parenting life, foster a “growth mindset.”
Be open to discussing the areas where your company still has work to do, I promise your employees already know about them.
Encourage people to speak openly about things that need to change
And when they do?
Don’t try to dismiss their concerns with platitudes. Don’t get defensive.
Instead, commit to examining the issue and then do so. Certainly, you won’t have time to dive deeply into every employee complaint, but when something keeps coming up do more than just form a committee. Consider a risk assessment, ask for outside help, create an action plan.
Focus on culture proactively
It's important to note that a focus on culture should also be proactive.
Take a hard look at how your company is applying its professed values. What do those values look like in practice?
Does the company’s incentive structure (both formal and informal) line up with those values?
Are employees measured by their ability to demonstrate those values? Are they disciplined for acting against them?
Do senior executives and the C-suite follow the same rules as everyone else?
Don’t let learning go to waste
Perhaps most importantly, don’t let these learnings go to waste. Work actively to identify cultural pitfalls and when they turn up, remediate.
Do not, like Stephen Zashin, offer a non-apology. Do not speak without an actual plan of action. Do not minimize the situation.
Instead, treat violations of company values, even when they don’t go viral, as serious ethics and compliance issues. Gather information, conduct a root cause analysis, make and implement a remediation plan.
We, as compliance and ethics professionals, can be the leaders of true change at our companies. But only if we are willing, first, to admit that change is necessary.
To contact Nicole Di Schino, please email ndischino@sparkcompliance.com. To find out more information about Spark Compliance, visit www.sparkcompliance.com.
