Undoubtedly, good employees are the greatest asset a company can possess. However, employees exhibiting inappropriate behaviour can impact a workplace negatively and cause further liability to an organisation.
As a moral and ethical duty, employers should drive and provide an atmosphere where all employees feel safe and cared for. Just like boundaries exist in a personal relationship, the same boundaries exist in a workplace.
Consider the example of Ms A and Mr B. They are both colleagues working on the same team. A couple of weeks ago, Mr B asked Ms A if she would like to go out for dinner. Ms A politely refused. Unfortunately, Mr B was not ready for this answer and, for the whole of last week, would ask the same of Ms A at every opportunity. The question posed once may have been scoffed off as harmless. However, this repeated conduct qualifies as “Harassment” and will surely be considered inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.
More often than not, the perspective on “Harassment” widely varies from men to women. What men might perceive as harmless can be conceived by women as downright offensive. For instance, two men discussing the attire of the new joinee may purely be office room antics in their minds. In reality, if the joinee feels uncomfortable upon hearing the same comments, it will qualify as Sexual Harassment in the eyes of the law.
Therefore the definition of Sexual Harassment has been purposefully set out to be wide and all-encompassing, which leaves ample room for interpretation.
Consider the following instances to get a brief idea of how Sexual Harassment comes disguised in many forms.
Suppose there is a team of engineers working for organisation X. The team has a male manager who is impressed with one of the female engineers’ work and gives her a promotion. Unfortunately, the others get jealous of this and start spreading rumours about their colleague having an illicit affair with the manager to bag the promotion. This false rumour quickly catches wind, and everyone looks down upon the woman’s hard work and reputation. This creates a hostile environment for the women to work in.Rita recently joined a media house. She needed help from the department’s senior assistant to help set up the work schedule. While doing so, the senior put his hand on her legs. This made her feel uncomfortable, but she scoffed it off as a friendly gesture. However, the next time she needed help from the same person, similar actions followed. It soon developed into a pattern where he would touch parts of her body, going as far as to brush against her breasts. Since then, Rita cringes at having to bear such unwarranted behaviour and refrains from seeking help from him. These behaviours of the senior assistant are a clear example of Sexual Harassment in the workplace.Kamla met Bernard at a work conference. They both found common business grounds to discuss, and Bernard invites Kamla to his office for further discussion. During her visit, Bernard, in his conversation, includes innuendos that Kamla is not comfortable with and asks him to stop. Bernard still carries on. Kamla, after returning, sends an email to the supervisor of Bernard’s organisation explaining the same. Although they do not share the same workplace, but making inappropriate conversation in a workplace, irrespective of whether you work for the same organisation or not, is recognised as Sexual Harassment.
3 rules for boundaries -
Be vocal: Not everyone stands on an equal footing when expressing themselves clearly. However, being vocal about the degree of closeness you are comfortable with in such situations is extremely important. A pat on the shoulder might be okay for some, but a hand on the back is not. Getting your point across initially might be difficult, and people might question this behaviour. Still, in the long run, it is very useful. Start a conversation: As discussed above, harassment behaviour can sometimes be subjective. Unfortunately, this is the same defence taken by sexual predators too. Thereby, to remove any shadow of a doubt, if you feel uncomfortable with someone’s behaviour, it’s best to engage in a direct conversation with them. This demystifies any misunderstanding the person may have. If the same behaviour continues, you will clearly understand if this is being done purposefully and can immediately report it to a higher authority.We understand that opening a conversation with a senior or supervisor may not always be possible in such situations. Therefore we recommend talking to HR or any other department that provides recourse for Sexual Harassment to address your problem.Actively seek recourse: If the harassment behaviour continues even after you have made yourself clear, it is futile to hope it will just stop on its own. In such cases, it is best to approach the redressal mechanism of your organisation and report the incident.
Conclusion
Every workplace has its own dynamics and unsaid rules of operating. But this should not come at the cost of any employee feeling unsafe or being victimised. However, since such issues mostly go hushed, it is not always apparent to the employer if any of their employees are being sexually harassed. One of the methods that is quickly catching up is hiring professional Anti-Sexual Harassment trainers to sensitize the workforce about the ill effects of Sexual Harassment and its penalties under the laws. Irrespective of the sector, these pieces of training are essential to irradicate a systemic culture of Sexual Harassment. In fact, under the PoSH law in India, the Supreme Court of the country has made it mandatory to train employees to prevent workplace misconduct. This helps to keep an organisation on the right side of the law as well as foster a healthy workspace for every individual to grow.
Rainmaker Online Solutions Pvt. Ltd. works on training the organisations on creating a work-safe environment for their employees along with a PoSH Training Certificate for them.
Learn More - https://rainmaker.co.in/posh/
Rainmaker Online Training Solutions
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