It’s questionable that you can achieve either of these goals. All of the objections listed strike me as being plausible. If they are reasonably accurate assessments of the situation, it may well be that persuading your friend to abandon what could be very good judgment here and proceeding to raise a stink will only make things worse for him.
To what end? Do the employees not know about it? If they knew, could/would they actually do anything meaningful? What exactly do you expect the clients to do?
Without knowing the personalities involved, what was said, the politics of the setting, etc., we can only guess at what may happen if your friend does what you suggest. BUT…even without knowing this stuff, we can reasonably say that it could go very badly (depending on the variables) and be a profound disservice to your friend. I can envision any number of ways it might turn into a real train wreck. People who expose and embarrass their bosses do not usually better their situation. Whistle-blowers are usually not treated well. A higher-up has already effectively said it’s a lost cause. I’ve got to ask, just what do you think will be accomplished, and just how do you think it will get accomplished?
I hope that the tape will effectively provide my friend - **the one being harassed ** - with some power/leverage over his higher-ups.
I was thinking that he could release it to embarrass his higher-ups because the things that they say to him are just completely inappropriate in any situation. Things that if a complete stranger said them to you, you’d probably call the police. Personal things that you don’t expect others to know.
Perhaps the tape of inappropriate behavior by a higher-up will get that person fired.
What I have gathered from many threads here on the Dope that discuss this type of situation is that it is much more likely that the one pressing the issue – in this case, your friend – is the one who will be fired. It seems that many (most?) bosses/companies/HR departments don’t like it when there’s complaining going on, and they tend to stop the complaining by getting rid of the complainer. They don’t seem to be concerned with whether or not the complaint has merit, unless it involves something illegal that might garner big fines. This is why I suggested that perhaps your friend’s gloomy assessment of the picture might be accurate. In some cases, the higher the higher-up, the more they want to NOT have to deal with this stuff, and if they must do something they eliminate the low ranking “troublemaker,” not the manager or boss.