Sexual Harassment Arbitrage: A Bad Play in Russia

by Johnny Debacle

Sexual Harassment Arbitrage allows attractive women to gain direct and indirect compensation from their Attractive assets, as follows:

Attractive people have a unique arbitrage opportunity. All thing being equal, they are more likely to be hired for a given position than a less attractive peer. But all things remaining equal, they are also more likely to be sexually harassed by their superiors than a less attractive comparable employee. This gives attractive people the opportunity to “double dip,” so to speak. They can gain employment and the ensuing compensation by virtue of their looks; then they can compound their returns by getting sexually harassed and filing multi-million dollar suits[.]

While we stand by this analysis, it comes with a caveat that, like most things requiring logic or fairness or human rights, it does not apply in Russia. There have been only 2 successful sexual harassment cases in Russia since it was the Soviet Union, and a recent suit was dismissed thusly by the ruling judge:

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

“If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children,” the judge ruled.

And then some amazing facts which support my contention that Russia is a place to fear:

According to a recent survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.

Eighty per cent of those who participated in the survey said they did not believe it possible to win promotion without engaging in sexual relations with their male superiors.

Women also report that it is common to be browbeaten into sex during job interviews, while female students regularly complain that university professors trade high marks for sexual favours.

Recommendation: Russian firms can arbitrage sexual harassment arbitrage by hiring exclusively “office hottie” caliber employees. They get full benefit for the 20% bump in productivity without being subject to the increase in sexual harassment related legal costs. The play for women and non-whites and people with ethics is to remain away from Russia.

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Comments

  1. August 7th, 2008 | 9:53 am

    That is immensely depressing

  2. JCauto
    August 7th, 2008 | 10:52 am

    Unless you are male, single, can speak Russian and have an entreprenurial ethic, in which case it is immensely exciting.

    Hell, there is a play here to set up a shell company that does nothing but grant “interviews” all day long.

  3. Cory
    August 7th, 2008 | 11:28 am

    Excellent idea JCauto. I have a few years experience in middle management, so i will be your shell company’s hiring manager. I have attached my resume.

  4. Oligarchette
    August 7th, 2008 | 11:30 am

    I proposed long ago to ship males into Russia, at least for short contract stints.

    They are short males from all the wars so women outnumber men almost 2 to 1. They import Asians and Indians, have national holidays to have sex, and sex classes/pleasing a man, totally has an opportunity written all over it.

    AND even if you get some chick knocked up she can’t go after you for support due to the laws AND you do not have to see her again AND you’re helping the country…

  5. HAM05
    August 7th, 2008 | 11:42 am

    oligarchette you are my hero

  6. JCauto
    August 7th, 2008 | 1:03 pm

    All right Cory, I have your resume here. Next step in the decision making process is the interview. May I suggest the Red Roof Inn off exit 47?

  7. Oligarchette
    August 7th, 2008 | 2:12 pm

    Who’s financing it?

  8. StraightCashHomie
    August 7th, 2008 | 2:38 pm

    Checked the CFA Jobline page and currently no openings in Russia… However, there is an opening in Detroit. Studies have shown that under Kwame Kilpatrick’s fearless leadership it’s really the closes the USA (and the rest of the civilized world) has come to replicate the more efficient Russian system. The leadership of Detroit and collective citizenry have really done a fantastic job in their pursuit of lawlessness, corruption, and violence at extreme levels previously associated only with Russia. The city of Detroit does lack far behind in Billionaires to Moscow but so did Moscow 10 years ago. Is now the time to get in on the ground floor?

  9. August 7th, 2008 | 2:59 pm

    @ StraightCashHomie

    Good call, was channel surfing a while ago and saw a turn-of-the-century (20th that is) mansion, think Ford’s back in their heyday, selling for about $1mm flat. Methinks NYC hundredthousandaire = Detroit billionaire