- The video discusses sexual harassment in the workplace and the need for a national reckoning on the issue.
- It references past instances of workplace harassment and the efforts to address it, such as Anita Hill's testimony in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
- The video highlights the confusion around the rules of sexual harassment and emphasizes that it is considered a form of employment discrimination under the law.
- It criticizes Tony Robbins' comments about men being afraid to hire women due to the #MeToo movement.
- The video points out the lack of due process and inadequate processes for addressing harassment privately, leading some victims to speak out publicly.

- Workplace sexual harassment is not federally protected for employees in businesses with less than 15 employees
- HR departments may not always seek justice on behalf of employees, but rather protect the company from liability
- Allegations of sexual harassment at Fox News were rampant, with multiple allegations against Bill O'Reilly
- The lack of calls to the HR hotline at Fox News does not mean an absence of systemic sexual harassment
- The U.S. Forest Service has also been described as having a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation
- Anita Hill's Senate testimony in 1991 highlighted techniques still used today to undermine victims of sexual harassment
- Awareness of the problem and development of internal mechanisms within companies are important steps in addressing sexual harassment
- Men have a role in addressing and fixing sexual harassment, and there are no innocent bystanders in this issue.

- Anita Hill discusses the importance of not being an innocent bystander in the face of wrongdoing
- She criticizes the focus on finding the line of acceptability, as it allows people to push boundaries
- The law needs to change to hold perpetrators accountable, regardless of intent
- Men should not be scared if they are not harassers, false claims are rare
- Hill reflects on her experience during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 1991 and the challenges she faced as a woman of color
- To address workplace harassment, policies need to be publicized and bystander training should be implemented
- Hill encourages people to speak up against creepy behavior and show empathy towards victims
- She is cautiously optimistic about the potential for change but acknowledges the slow progress
- The problem of workplace harassment needs to be addressed before it is too late, likened to the melting ice caps.

- The video discusses the need for a national reckoning on sexual harassment in the workplace.
- It references past instances of workplace harassment and efforts to address it.
- The video criticizes Tony Robbins' comments about men being afraid to hire women due to the #MeToo movement.
- It highlights the lack of due process and inadequate processes for addressing harassment privately.
- Workplace sexual harassment is not federally protected for employees in businesses with less than 15 employees.
- HR departments may prioritize protecting the company from liability over seeking justice for employees.
- Allegations of sexual harassment at Fox News were rampant, with multiple allegations against Bill O'Reilly.
- The U.S. Forest Service has also been described as having a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation.
- Awareness and internal mechanisms within companies are important in addressing sexual harassment.
- Men have a role in addressing and fixing sexual harassment.
- Anita Hill criticizes the focus on finding the line of acceptability and calls for changes in the law to hold perpetrators accountable.
- Policies need to be publicized and bystander training should be implemented to address workplace harassment.
- Hill encourages people to speak up against creepy behavior and show empathy towards victims.
- She is cautiously optimistic about the potential for change but acknowledges slow progress.

With a national dialogue underway about sexual harassment in the workplace, John Oliver sits down with Anita Hill to discuss the recent response to a not-so-recent problem.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Sexual harassment in the workplace, which you may know from its supporting role on the hit show, Mad Men.

And look, who better to talk about it than me, a man?

When will the male perspective on harassment be heard?

The public has been crying out, well, wait no longer, tonight is the night.

We've been dealing with workplace harassment for decades, as demonstrated by this unfortunately titled training video from 1981.

Everything is a matter of fact when it's unwelcome and when it occurs at work.

Okay, so first, never call it good old sex.

You sound like a grandfather explaining the birds and the bees.

Let's talk about good old sex, Tiger, because sometimes Pop-Pop likes to stick the old spatula in Meemaw's Easy-Bake Oven.

But the fact is, the fact is, store brand Ted Danson is right.

Workplace harassment is something important to discuss, and it's been in the headlines again this week with the New Yorker's expose about CBS and Les Moonves coming hot on the heels of similar investigations into everyone from Harvey Weinstein, to Charlie Rose, to SpongeBob, who 5 different employees accuse of being unable to keep his sponge dick in his square pants.

And look, whenever the subject of workplace harassment comes up, you can bet on 1 thing, men getting very nervous.

And you could get to a point where women are going to be denied opportunities to advance in corporate America because men don't want to be alone with a woman, don't want to be in the same office as a woman.

I'm so scared to even hug a woman because I better have a big enough bank account for her to turn around and file a complaint or file a lawsuit against me.

I'm starting to be concerned that innocent people are afraid of being hurt, and that's a bad sign.

And so the question is, What are the rules?

You know, you can tell so much about a question from the mere tone with which it is asked, because, what are the rules, is not inherently a bad question to ask if you want to know the answer.

Sounds more like an erections temper tantrum.

But the point here is, it does seem like we're on the verge of a national reckoning about sexual harassment.

Major companies like Ford have had to pay multi-million dollar settlements and promised to change their corporate culture.

A wave of women are now running for office in what's being called the Year of the Woman.

And Time's Up was even a theme of this year's Oscar show.

Now, unfortunately, everything I just said also describes the 1990s, when powerful companies like Ford paid out multi-million dollar settlements and promised to change their culture, and a wave of women ran for office in 1992, prompting it to be called the Year of the Woman, and that theme was the backdrop of the next year's Oscars featuring

♪ Ladies, ladies Everywhere's fun ♪ -♪ Stand and cheer ♪ -♪ Look at me, dear ♪ -♪ The women of the hour Out to claim ♪ -♪ Look at me, dear ♪ -♪ Their at equal share of power Hillary Hillary Will lead the way Will lead the way

The only way that could be any more on the nose is if after they sang Hillary Will Lead The Way, Donald Trump came on stage, groped the backup dancers, and somehow won best picture despite losing the popular votes.

Now, that national conversation in the 90s was largely kick-started by the experience of this woman.

And if you are too young to remember who that is, first, enjoy Snapchatting your student loan avocado toast, or whatever it is you people do.

She was compelled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the confirmation hearings of Judge Clarence Thomas.

And she informed them that when she'd worked for him years before, she'd been repeatedly harassed.

She gave a detailed account of inappropriate behavior from unwanted advances, to Thomas bragging about the size of his own penis, to an infamous story about a pubic hair in a Coke can, which is the most disgusting thing you could possibly discover in a Coke can, other than Pepsi.

And while enough senators believed Thomas' denials to confirm him, the terrible treatment that Anita Hill received during the hearings inspired a nationwide effort to stop workplace harassment once and for all.

So tonight, since we seem to be going in circles on this issue, let's try and at least talk about it, if only because no 1 wants to see ending workplace harassment as the unofficial theme of the 2048 Oscars, hosted by a somehow still ageless Paul Rudd.

And let's just start with 1 of those basic questions that Tucker Carlson whined into his camera.

It's something that continues to confuse people, despite all those shitty training videos showing examples of a dangerous office culture.

Have you seen the new blonde secretary over at shipping?

haven't seen anything until you've seen her file, man.

Listen, if you boys are impressed with her typing and filing, wait until she takes your dictation.

-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ Now, I realize this isn't necessarily the most relevant criticism of that man's behavior, but he just left without washing his hands.

There was just 0 daylight between the time his fingers adjusted his colleague's necktie and the time they adjusted his own penis.

But, but, but the question, what is sexual harassment, actually does have an answer.

Because while companies may have their own policies, from a legal standpoint, sexual harassment is considered a form of employment discrimination.

Just like discrimination on the basis of race or age.

It becomes unlawful when it is severe or pervasive enough that it creates a hostile environment, or when it includes a quid pro quo, meaning employees have to endure the harassment or risk losing their job.

So that is what constitutes sexual harassment under the law.

It's not a single shitty joke or a botched compliment.

It's going out of your way to make someone else's work day a psychosexual nightmare.

But, of course, behavior doesn't have to be illegal to be inappropriate.

Anytime that you're making someone else uncomfortable, that's gonna be a problem.

And some of this involves judgment and consideration.

I would argue if it's from behind, never.

And incidentally, is a hug okay is Britain's top-selling sex ed book, And the answer is simply, no.

The problem is, some people have decided to handle the complexity of this issue, not by modifying their behavior, but by modifying their staff.

And I will let instantly exhausting Easter Island head Tony Robbins, the author of the book, The Worst Person You Know, is currently reading this.

Tonight, Tony Robbins taking heat after these comments.

Robbins saying some men in Hollywood now afraid to hire women.

Because I just met someone the other day, very famous man, very powerful man, who's saying how stressed he is because he interviewed 3 people that day.

The woman was better qualified, but she was very attractive, and he knew, I can't have him around because it's too big a risk and he hired somebody else.

You do get that that's not a story about a problem with the Me Too movement, right?

That's a story about a man who shouldn't be allowed to have employees at all.

You probably think Jeffrey Dahmer was just the victim of dangerous men and boys who walked around all day being too edible.

The thing is, unfortunately, Arguments like that can slow down any movement towards finding real solutions.

And too often, aspersions are cast on anyone coming forward.

From, they're just doing it to get rich, to they're just doing it for revenge, to why are they coming forward now?

And it is strange that we go there so quickly because that just doesn't happen with other traumatic events.

If your house burnt down, you wouldn't expect a newscaster to immediately start asking, why are you coming forward now?

Was your house wearing something flammable?

Because where is the line between fire and not fire anymore?

I'm terrified to be around houses anymore!

-♪ ♪ -♪ But with sexual harassment, that is so often where this conversation immediately goes, with immediate concern less for the victim and more for the accused.

Right now, accusation, allegation, goodbye.

I wonder if you destroy men or complete the destruction of men, They're pretty close to being destroyed, I would say.

Now that all the Ghostbusters are women, that means that when we die, we'll spend all of eternity being destroyed by more women.

And look, and look, the court of public opinion is far from an ideal place to deal with individual claims.

But it's worth considering why some who've been harassed feel the need to speak publicly, because it often has to do with the fact that we have a piecemeal inadequate process for addressing the issue privately.

The law requires you to first go through the EEOC before you can file an employment discrimination lawsuit, and they are notoriously difficult to win.

And while state laws vary, if you work for a business with less than 15 employees, there is no federal remedy for workplace sexual harassment.

And let's say you don't want to file a lawsuit.

Maybe you, like many people, don't even want your harasser to be fired.

That is where a company's HR department might come in.

But people can be reluctant to go to HR for understandable reasons.

HR exists to protect the company from liability, not necessarily to seek justice on an employee's behalf.

And all those guys that you just saw complaining about due process should really know this, because they work at Fox News, where harassment allegations are so rampant that their biggest stars have been dropping like suspects in an Agatha Christie novel.

There were multiple allegations against Bill O'Reilly, after which their parent company responded, no current or former Fox News employee ever took advantage of the 21st Century Fox hotline to raise a concern about him.

And maybe that is because those women knew that the huge power disparity between them and O'Reilly was unlikely to work in their favor.

This is something that was actually pointed out to O'Reilly by perhaps the single worst person imaginable.

Every allegation in this area is a conviction.

But think about those 5 women, and what they did.

They came forward and filed complaints against the biggest star at the network they worked at.

Think of how intimidating that must have been, how nerve-wracking that must have been.

Doesn't that tell you how strongly they felt about the way they were treated by you?

That is an admirably confrontational question, Matt Lauer.

You've really backed him into a corner, pressured him into giving you what you want, and locked the door behind you.

But, but, as we now know, the absence of calls to a hotline does not mean an absence of systemic sexual harassment.

And while Bill O'Reilly denied the allegations against him, he reportedly settled 1 of them for $32 million.

$32 million to 1 person, and that's where the negotiations ended up.

At a figure slightly more than the production budget of La La Land.

O'Reilly allegedly engaged in a La La Land's worth of harassment.

So if nobody called Fox's HR hotline, that might be a problem with their fucking HR hotline.

And when you combine a toxic workplace with a lack of confidence in systems of accountability, bad things can happen.

Forest Service, where women have been coming forward describing a boys' club atmosphere rife with harassment and retaliation.

Just listen to 1 employee explain what she went through in filing a complaint.

I wanted justice, but I wasn't, like, in it for some personal vendetta.

I don't want this to happen to other women.

And I don't want him to do it, like, in the future.

Her complaint detailed several instances of inappropriate physical contact.

Another time, he grabbed her breasts, put his hand between her legs, and groped her.

2 months later, The Forest Service sent her a letter.

It said an investigation against allegations of misconduct was conducted and we found that there was no misconduct.

And so then it just feels like you're like screaming into a void, like this happened and nobody hears that.

Or believes, or they hear it and don't believe it at all.

And Honestly, I can't even say I'm that surprised that the Forest Service is a hotbed of sexual misconduct.

What sort of government agency routinely allows an employee to show up to work without wearing a shirt?

And I do not want to hear the excuse, oh, Smokey's a bear, of course He doesn't have a shirt.

And look, look, the point is, it's not about him.

Abby Bolt, a battalion chief with the Forest Service, was sexually assaulted while on assignment.

And while she did tell the police, she didn't press charges, and her description of why she felt she couldn't tell her bosses about the incident is just heartbreaking.

Watching somebody that would file a complaint or make a complaint immediately became the problem.

And, you know, we have the term that girl or those girls.

You know, I have I've introduced myself that way to people.

of those girls being someone who simply says that behavior is wrong.

And the culture that she's describing is way too similar to the culture that we thought we could work to eliminate The last time we had a big conversation about this, back in 1991 with Anita Hill.

And re-watching the Senate debate about her now, it is depressing how many of the techniques used to undermine her are still around today.

From concern over false allegations, to blaming the victim, to outright character assassination.

Let me tell you, the law of sexual harassment is so broad...

That a person can accuse another at any time and ruin their reputation just by an unfounded allegation.

How could you allow this kind of reprehensible conduct to go on right in the headquarters without doing something about it?

I really am getting stuff over the transom about Professor Hill.

I've got letters hanging out my pocket, I've got faxes, statements from Tulsa, Oklahoma saying, watch out...

But nobody's got the guts to say that because it gets all tangled up in this sexual harassment crap.

Literally, the only parts of that montage that would sound at all out of place today are the words transom and the concept of faxes.

Again, for young people, a fax is like if a...

It's like if a text message fucked a telegram.

A0A telegram is like, you know what, young people, never mind, go back to your avocado toast.

The tragic fact here is, while we've made progress, some progress regarding workplace harassment since then, we clearly haven't come far enough.

Well, I would say, the first step for both management and employees is awareness of the problem.

The next is for companies to develop workable internal mechanisms to deal with sexual harassment and for employees to change those behavior patterns, which might contribute to it.

Now that we know this form of discrimination exists, we must put an end to it.

And I'd love to say I believe that, but remember that good old sex video that I showed you earlier?

The first step for both management and employees is awareness of the problem.

The next is for companies to develop workable internal mechanisms to deal with sexual harassment.

And for employees to change those behavior patterns which might contribute to it.

It's like the movie Groundhog Day, and just like that movie, there's entirely too much unacknowledged workplace harassment happening in plain view.

She's your producer, Bill, and it's always her first day.

Look, look, the large point here is, time was supposed to be up in 1981 and 1991, and now time is supposed to be up again.

But I do know an expert in this field that may have some suggestions.

In 1991, Anita Hill testified for 8 hours in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, enduring humiliating questions from a panel of world-class assholes.

She is now a professor at Brandeis University and was kind enough to meet with me.

Professor Hill, thank you so much for sitting down with me.

So, it has been 27 years since you testified in front of the Senate.

Oh, there's been a tremendous amount of change.

There's been a change in public attitude, and there's been a change in the amount of information that we have about sexual harassment.

There's certainly more awareness after the Me Too movement.

Even a few years ago, people were ambivalent about what the consequences should be if someone is behaving incredibly badly and abusing people they work with.

Yeah, I guess the problem is there that awareness of a problem doesn't necessarily make something better.

I've been aware of Coldplay for years, but that hasn't seemed to help the issue go away.

People were aware of it, But there was no consensus on what should we do about it.

You suggested you can fix the women, you can fix the guys, or you can change the culture.

And if we fix the guys and change the culture, we won't need to fix the women.

You know, And so far, much of the approach that we've had is to put all of the burden on women.

1 of the questions I got that just sort of sticks out within me is, how do we raise our daughter to make sure that she doesn't set herself up to be a victim of sexual harassment.

These are the kinds of things that we're thinking, if we fix her, then she won't encounter this problem.

I'm a man in the broadest possible sense of the word.

Let's talk about men's role regarding trying to fix sexual harassment.

And to realize at this point in time, there are no innocent bystanders.

If you are aware of something, you acknowledge it, you know it's wrong, but you don't do anything about it, then it's the same as participating in it.

Is it worth trying to spot some of the more disingenuous questions out there?

Because 1 of the refrains you hear a lot is, where's the line?

But it seems like that's often in search of an answer that will identify exactly how close to the line they can possibly get.

So if an eight-second hug is unacceptable, I say, great.

I'm doing a seven-and-a-half-second hug, and I'm filling it with as much creepiness as I can.

And unfortunately, to some extent, the law has allowed that to happen.

That you know it was bad but it wasn't quite bad enough.

Yeah and so And maybe they didn't even realize that they were getting close to the 8 seconds, because they, you know, are not good with numbers.

So part of the change has to be with the law.

You know, 1 of the things that so often happens is that the law around discrimination relies on intent.

Well, you know, if you're a victim, it doesn't matter so much whether they intended.

Right, you might not have intended to hit me with your car, but you hit me.

And that means that there are repercussions and consequences, regardless of what your intent was.

We've seen a lot of men saying that they are absolutely terrified to be alone with a woman now.

Yeah, if you're a harasser, yes, you should be terrified.

You know, the whole idea of false claims as something that is another 1 of those roadblocks that people throw up.

Well, that really hasn't manifested itself.

That doesn't mean that it never happens, but they're so rare.

And it seems to me that we don't need to make rules around the things that rarely happen until we finish up making the rules around the things that are happening regularly.

There are men afraid that if they're accused, they're just going to wind up being dragged in front of some kind of tribunal with their whole private life up for review against people who think they're lying no matter what they say.

And in the process of doing that, their life could be completely turned upside down.

Can you, Anita Hill, even imagine what that might

I actually have had my life turned upside down.

You were called to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

And It seemed like you had a set of expectations of how that would go and that those expectations were in a very real sense not met.

Was there a point during that 8 hours that you found yourself thinking, really, this is what today's gonna be?

There was a point where they said something about, well, what procedure would you like to be put in place?

I'm a witness, I'm on the witness stand, I'm trying to testify.

And I thought, so they really don't know what they're doing.

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Evaluate how specific textual features and authorial choices shape meaning in Carbon Offsets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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Workplace Sexual Harassment: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)