Laughter, Outsider thought, was not perhaps the reaction the speaker was looking for.
In a world where employees and management were under ever-increasing scrutiny for inappropriate behaviour and those involved were outed in the media for their actions, it would be expected this was being seen as a positive movement by the industry.
However, during the conference, the comment made was about how the financial services sector had improved in light of environmental, social and governance awareness but it received a mixed response.
“Inappropriate behaviour is no longer being tolerated by the industry,” the speaker said in their presentation.
Rather than nods of approval, there were laughs from the audience including the AMP employee seated at Outsider’s table.
Outsider considered that this was an interesting reaction given AMP had been the face of one of last year’s most high-profile sexual harassment allegations.
Former AMP Capital chief executive, Boe Pahari, was alleged to have acted inappropriately towards a female colleague and lost his CEO position, but not his job at the firm where he was global head of infrastructure.
Perhaps Outsider’s esteemed AMP neighbour believes his workplace may talk the talk but isn’t quite walking the walk just yet.
