> By making that statement HR was definitely not protecting the company.
They couldn't have foreseen that this would blow up, but they almost certainly would have predicted company damage if they had NOT parroted the line about white male aggressors.
> I don't understand how refraining from saying that quote to him would lead to company damage.
He's not the audience for that quote.
As we've seen time and time again, a mob will form against almost any company that doesn't parrot lines like that.
Companies issuing statements, whether internally or externally, are never going to issue anything that can be construed as less than 100% in support of women.
On the other hand, the HR person is just a person, and they sometimes make mistakes, like issuing a statement about their official policy when that policy is supposed to be secret.
> It sounds to me like it was a quote made to him one on one. How could he not be the audience for it?
An official statement from a department is no less official and subject to citation just because it was made to a single person.
The official making the statement to the effect of "any and all sexual harassment complaints from women* will be investigated fully and comprehensively"* is saying it because even when it is repeated it is, as far as the issuer of that statement goes, in line with "Protecting the Company from harm".
I'm very curious about why you cannot see the statement "any and all sexual harassment complaints from women will be investigated fully and comprehensively" as something that an HR person would find safe enough to repeat, and to be repeated.
