Workplace Boundaries: Cross them when your message is on the highest end of your convictions. (2015 film, Spotlight)

As depicted in the 2015 Spotlight, the necessity of crossing workplace boundaries at The Boston Globe was the main catalyst to propel the Catholic archdiocese of Boston sexual abuse scandal to the front page in 2002. The story was initially published in 1993, on page 19 of The Boston Globe’s metro section, a less-vital area of the paper reserved for news of local interest.

The 2002 scandal was reported by a tightknit group of investigative journalists known as Spotlight. By nature of their sensitive reporting, this group of Boston Globe reporters regularly worked together out of the office and after-hours. The Spotlight team’s colleagues, as well as supervisors and subordinates, would socialize and work simultaneously in more relaxed environments like at a live baseball game, bars, and restaurants, and regularly consuming alcohol.

The first instance of executive editor Marty Baron learning about the Spotlight team’s discrete process is not at The Boston Globe’s newsroom headquarters but in a crowded restaurant at The Four Season Hotel. It even takes place on the weekend. Still, one aspect of a workplace boundary remaining intact is when Spotlight team leader Robby Robinson respects the concept of upward communication at this meeting. He addressed Marty Baron, who is obviously younger than him though his supervisor, as “Mr. Baron.”

The consumption of alcohol became a workplace cultural rite with the Spotlight team. An early update in the investigation was discussed between Spotlight reporter Mike Rezendes and his supervisor, managing editor Ben Bradlee. They are seated in the stands at Fenway Park baseball stadium. Both men have visibly consumed a cup of beer, and in fact, another Spotlight reporter just left them to retrieve another round of drinks. Later instances of news gathering accompanying alcohol consumption include reporter Robby Robinson talking with an attorney representing the Church, and Robinson and reporter Ben Bradlee updating each other after-hours and over beers.

Though not necessarily a violation of workplace boundaries, as the communication mechanism known as the grapevine travels in upward, downward, and lateral directions simultaneously, this method was used throughout the film. By the scandalous nature of the sexual abuse investigation, many of the integral news leads that led to larger information was discovered by the Spotlight team through the grapevine.

The instances or informal communication crossing or almost-crossing workplace boundaries, as well as the consumption of alcohol, which is most associated with social-related environments, were an integral part of the Spotlight team moving forward. The anti-social risks involved with violating workplace-relationships significantly assisted the investigation. Considering all the inquires that took place over the course of the film, imagine if they were done exclusively during work hours and in the confined cubicle-setting in The Boston Globe headquarters. Throughout the film, the Spotlight team routinely reminded each other the imperative nature of exposing the Catholic archdiocese of Boston. This attitude led them to their repeated crossing of workplace boundaries and rewarded them as the eventual 2002 publication of their efforts became instant worldwide news. The following year the paper received a Pulitzer Prize for this story.