To Joseph – I assume that when R Elyashiv paskened on a sheila/case, he tried to the best of his ability to be aware of all relevant details in addition to his remarkable knowledge of torah and halachah. He would not foolishly pasken based on a wrong assumption of how things worked in the world, especially if it could be severly detrimental to ppl following his pasek.
To issue a psak on tznius that could cause ppl to lose their jobs seems pretty high stakes to me. I hope that such consequences were taken into consideration when the psak was issued.
If we asked r neiman straight up, if you had a choice, either engage in small talk with a women or lose your job. Would he say lose your job?
I think he might have just misjudged the dynamics of the workplace