The practice of passing lewd remarks at female co-employees or going a step ahead and assaulting her counts under Sexual Harassment. It has been found that nearly 40-60% of working women face this misery at some point in their career. It is a form of systemic discrimination that the female employee goes through and adoption of sexual harassment policy is the solution to this problem.
It is sexual harassment if a supervisor requests sexual favours from a junior in return for promotion or other benefits or threatens to sack for non-cooperation. It is also sexual harassment for a boss to make intrusive inquiries into the private lives of employees, or persistently ask them out. It is sexual harassment for a group of workers to joke and snigger amongst themselves about sexual conduct in an attempt to humiliate or embarrass another person.
What every female tends to do in such a situation is ignore the comments and move on. This gives an impression that you don’t mind the remarks which can be dangerous as the harasser may do it again. Every organization appoints an HR team to tackle employee grievances and a complaint should be launched immediately to avoid a similar situation to creep in again. It is better to act before a problem occurs.
Most women do not complain because they either think that the issue is unimportant and will not cause any harm or they fear reprisals. Thus what a women needs is a strong support from her co-employees in order to take proper action. Speak up and let the right individual know about the miss-doings. This also motivates other female employees to act the way you do and report the crime.
-Arti Bakshi
Human Resource- A Magazine for the Discerning Professional
HR Magazine, HR Articles, HR Writeups, HR Trivia, Human Resource Articles, HR Magazine in India
It is sexual harassment if a supervisor requests sexual favours from a junior in return for promotion or other benefits or threatens to sack for non-cooperation. It is also sexual harassment for a boss to make intrusive inquiries into the private lives of employees, or persistently ask them out. It is sexual harassment for a group of workers to joke and snigger amongst themselves about sexual conduct in an attempt to humiliate or embarrass another person.
What every female tends to do in such a situation is ignore the comments and move on. This gives an impression that you don’t mind the remarks which can be dangerous as the harasser may do it again. Every organization appoints an HR team to tackle employee grievances and a complaint should be launched immediately to avoid a similar situation to creep in again. It is better to act before a problem occurs.
Most women do not complain because they either think that the issue is unimportant and will not cause any harm or they fear reprisals. Thus what a women needs is a strong support from her co-employees in order to take proper action. Speak up and let the right individual know about the miss-doings. This also motivates other female employees to act the way you do and report the crime.
-Arti Bakshi
Human Resource- A Magazine for the Discerning Professional
HR Magazine, HR Articles, HR Writeups, HR Trivia, Human Resource Articles, HR Magazine in India