David Letterman leaves the Ed Sullivan Theater, in New York City, after a taping of Late Show, July 29, 2009. By Ray Tamarra/Getty Images.
You know the saying – never dip your pen in company ink? No? How about, never crap on your doorstep? No?
Well, you have heard both expressions now and can use it in polite company on what the act of sex does to professional relations. Especially sex with your collegues or superiors. The long and short (haha) of sleeping with someone at work is that a) someone will eventually discover it and b) they will credit your success to sexual favoritism. Mostly though, even though you may be thoroughly enjoying the act, it is thoroughly unprofessional. That is pretty much what one ex-Late Night employee had to say about David Letterman’s affairs at the workplace.
In a piece in Vanity Fair, Nell Scovell writes about the hostile, sexually charged atmosphere at Late Night with David Letterman – the show where she worked briefly as a writer. Scovell said Letterman didn’t ”hit on her” during her roughly five-month stint with the show in 1990.
Without naming names or digging up decades-old dirt, let’s address the pertinent questions. Did Dave hit on me? No. Did he pay me enough extra attention that it was noted by another writer? Yes. Was I aware of rumors that Dave was having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Was I aware that other high-level male employees were having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Did these female staffers have access to information and wield power disproportionate to their job titles? Yes. Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. Did I believe these female staffers were benefiting professionally from their personal relationships? Yes. Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely. Did I say anything at the time? Sadly, no.
Scovell quit Letterman’s NBC show, because she saw ”I was not going to thrive professionally in that workplace. And although there were various reasons for that, sexual politics did play a major part.”
When Letterman asked why she was leaving the New York-based show, she says she considered telling him the truth but balked because his ”rumored mistress” was within earshot. Instead, Scovell writes, she told him she missed Los Angeles.
”You’re welcome back anytime,” Scovell recalls Letterman telling her.
David Letterman’s sexual dalliances with his co-workers came to light after a CBS News producer Robert J. “Joe” Halderman tried to extort $2 million from Letterman to keep the lid on an affair Letterman was having with Joe’s girlfriend, Stefanie Birkitt. (This sentence is too long.) Letterman still has his job, Halderman pleaded “not guilty” to the extortion charge, and Birkitt is apparently “mortified” by the whole thing. But more than the sordid affair itself, the Letterman saga brings to light sex at the workplace and how that can horribly distort workplace power and politics.
