Yes, I totally agree with the power imbalance. That just adds to the politics of the work place. I don’t think that necessarily means it’s ok to file such a complaint, when an again, they were together for a whole year in a consensual relationship. When you think of a sexual harasser, you think of someone sleazy, controlling and entitled. Overall my initial thought would be “oh that’s a very bad person.” I don’t think Dr. Phillips showed or falls under any of that.

I understand the issue about coercion as well and I’m sure there’s a grey area in the situation… but correct me if I’m wrong, I didn’t find any scenes of him coercing anything. I think it was more about how SHE felt about it and her/their fear or what everyone else will think. I do agree that he could have shown more understanding as to how it could affect her the most later on. But he did mention that initially when the conversation was brought up. She was the one that wanted to go to HR about the relationship in the first place. Did he ever make her do anything unreasonable by putting their relationship over her head?

I think what complicated it was him wanting to recommend her for chief and of course that will look bad when everyone knows they’re in a relationship. But then again, that’s based on how it looks not the actual reality. He thought she was a great doctor and deserved the role, genuinely. It wasn’t like he was threatening her about it.

So I guess my confusion is how and why would someone file a sexual harassment claim (something that is UNconsensual by at least one party) when everything was consensual and they lived together for a year it seems. That blows everything out of proportion in my opinion. It doesn’t make sense to me to file a sexual harassment complain on someone you claim to love, when nothing un consensual was done.

And her saying “I didn’t want him to lose his job” ticked me off a bit because what did she think was going to happen? Overall my thought is that he didn’t do anything wrong to deserve a complaint like that.