I’ve been thinking for the last couple of days about whether I should blog on the PWC email controversy.
Or rather, about media coverage of the story, in particular the decision by some Irish newspapers and websites to publish the photographs of the women concerned.
I considered a trawl through Facebook and LinkedIn, to find the faces of the peacocks who circulated the email, but decided against it.
Then I thought about posting images of the journalists whose bylines appeared next to the photographs. Or maybe the editors who made the final decision to publish.
In the end, other things took priority, and I didn’t write anything on the story.
But one thing bugs me. Again and again, as I read criticism of the decision to publish those photographs, the same theme emerged.
Take Laura Slattery’s Irish Times blog, for example: “I don’t imagine the women involved are having much fun at the moment either. Again, just think what it must have felt like…”
Something bugs me about that line.
I’ve no doubt the women involved are competent, intelligent, articulate professionals. So why is it so much of the commentary I’ve read reduce them to the status of passive victims?
Because I think they are passive victims. These kids are literally just in from college and still relatively “green.” They were in their new jobs ca. 1 month when all this emerged. I know when I started work from college I was still blissfully unaware of most of the things I know today, 5 years on. Were you not the same?
In saying all that, if I was them I be suing the bee-hind off PwC right away.