Tackling Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination
(BHD) in an organization
Harassment
25 November 2023
Blog three of Eight - by Dilshad Banu Mohideen
Harassment can be in many forms
and covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. Harassment is the behaviors that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person and an act of social and
moral reasonableness.
According to a Colombo Gazette
article, the impacts of workplace violence and harassment has led to the loss
of six working days per employee every year, costing the nine Sri Lankan
companies surveyed at least $1.7 million, according to a new report by IFC, the
International Finance Corporation.
According
to the Legal Information Institute, harassment refers to words or behaviour
that threatens, intimidates, or demeans a person. Harassment is unwanted, uninvited, and
unwelcome and causes nuisance, alarm, or substantial emotional distress without any legitimate purpose.
Again
according to the Legal Information Institute, in employment law, harassment is a form of employment discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of
1967 (ADEA), and
the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
(ADA). In employment
law, harassment is defined as offensive, unwelcome conduct based on a
victim's protected characteristic, that is so severe or pervasive that it
affects the terms and conditions of the victim's employment. Harassment may
take the form of words, actions, gestures, demands, or visual displays, such as
photographs or cartoons.
Challenges in
identifying harassment.
Unlike bullying, harassment can be
very tricky to identify by the victims or the bystanders. Unfortunately, even
the sharpest of HR professionals sometimes miss the signs and types of
workplace harassment. The main challenges are:
·
It’s almost impossible to keep watch over what all your employees
are doing.
·
Employees have their own ideas about what it means to behave
professionally in the workplace.
·
Unless the employees raise or report harassment, HR professionals cannot
act on behalf of every employee.
For example, one employee might
find curse words perfectly acceptable to use in daily conversations with
coworkers while another employee may find them very offensive. Culture and
environment play a major role in behaviours, however, that doesn’t allow unreasonable
behaviour in an organisation to be tolerated.
Harassment at workplace can be 3
types:
·
Verbal/Written
·
Physical
·
Visual
Verbal
Harassment
Verbal or written is probably the
most obvious workplace harassment and the one which is common in many
organizations.
The common form to watch out in
recent times is technology. Harassment through technology, also known as
cyberbullying, cyberstalking, or online harassment, is the use of electronic
communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an
intimidating or threatening nature. Harassment through technology can have a
devastating impact on an employee’s life. It can lead to emotional distress,
anxiety, depression, and even physical harm. In some cases, victims even been
driven to suicide.
Physical
Harassment
Physical harassment might be a
little harder to recognize because it can sometimes be very subtle.
The impact of physical harassment
can be devastating and long-lasting to an individual. Individuals who are
subjected to physical harassment may suffer physical injuries, as well as
emotional and psychological trauma. This can result in decreased job
performance, and increased absenteeism, and in some cases, the individual may
leave their job or be terminated which may have an adverse impact on their
career. This can create a toxic work environment for everyone as well as
interruptions for business continuity.
Visual Harassment
Visual harassment is a situation
where the individual exposes themselves to another person without the victim's
consent, and the act affects their work performance or attitude. Examples of
visual harassment include exposing of private parts. Sending sexual images or
videos to another person.
Visual harassment is probably the
hardest to identify because it’s the most subjective and really requires you to
put yourself in the shoes of the other person. visual harassment forces a
person to view things that are inappropriate for a work environment.
Tackling harassment
in organizations
Organizations should strive to create and maintain a work environment in which employees are treated with dignity, decency and respect. The environment of the organization should be characterized by mutual trust and the absence of intimidation, oppression, and exploitation. Organizations should not tolerate unlawful discrimination or harassment of any kind. Through enforcement of this policy and by education of employees, organizations may seek to prevent, correct, and discipline behaviours that violates this policy.
All
employees, regardless of their positions or hierarchy, should be covered by and
are expected to comply with anti-harassment policy and to take appropriate
measures to ensure that prohibited conduct does not occur. Appropriate
disciplinary action should be outlined be taken against any employee who
violates this policy. Based on the seriousness of the offense, disciplinary
action may include verbal or written reprimand, suspension, or termination of
employment.
Managers
and supervisors who knowingly allow or tolerate discrimination, harassment, or
retaliation, including the failure to immediately report such misconduct to
human resources, should be considered in violation of this policy and should be
subjected to discipline.
How
practical and possible to implement this policy in Sri Lankan organizations?
Appreciate your thoughts.
References:
LII / Legal Information
Institute. (n.d.). Harassment. [online] Available at: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/harassment.
[accessed 19 Nov.2023]
Sentrient Blog. (2023). How
To Identify, Prevent, And Respond To Physical Harassment At Workplace.
[online] Available at: https://www.sentrient.com.au/blog/how-to-identify-prevent-and-respond-to-physical-harassment-in-the-workplace.
[accessed 24 Nov.2023]
bugsbunny (2022). Workplace harassment costing Sri Lankan
businesses millions. [online] Colombo Gazette. Available at: https://colombogazette.com/2022/09/15/workplace-harassment-costing-sri-lankan-businesses-millions
[Accessed 20 Dec. 2023].
Hi Dilshad!
ReplyDeleteHarassment is a serious issue that can have a devastating impact on individuals and organizations. Organizations have a responsibility to create and maintain a workplace that is free from harassment of any kind. By developing and implementing a strong anti-harassment policy, providing training to employees, and creating a culture of respect and dignity, organizations can help to prevent harassment and create a safe and productive workplace for everyone. Plus the policy needs periodical review too.
Agree 100% Kalpa. As you mentioned these policies should not there as a policy document, but should be reviewed periodically and relevant awareness and training should be provided to all the employees.
DeleteVery good Topic Dilshad..
ReplyDeleteEstablishing a secure and welcoming workplace requires addressing and stopping harassment within companies. Adding some more to the comment made by Kalpa I would say that implementing mechanisms for Anonymous Reporting (Establishing confidential channels for reporting harassment incidents ) also a good initiative for organizations. So this will lead to employees in reporting any incident without any fear.
Thank you Lakmal. I thought about anonymous reporting. However, this brings a challenge to the management to implement investigations or punishment. My opinion is that it will not be effective to create a safe work environment. What do you think?
DeleteAccording to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), harassment can include “offensive jokes, slurs, epithets or name calling, physical assaults or threats, intimidation, ridicule or mockery, insults or put-downs, offensive objects or pictures, and interference with work performance. In your article you have mention three type of harassments. Further I would like to mention one more to your list. It is Digital harassment. Digital harassment includes posting threats or demeaning comments on social media, creating a fake persona to bully someone online, creating a webpage about the victim to mock and belittle them.
ReplyDeleteHi Mahesh, excellent examples of day to day harassment in organizations. Thank you for sharing.
DeleteThere are many challenges when creating harassment free culture like, country Sri Lanka one of challenge is ,Sri Lankan culture traditionally emphasizes respect for authority and hierarchical relationships. This can make it difficult for employees, especially those in lower positions, to report harassment from superiors.
ReplyDeleteSri Lankan organization cultures need to be more careful on this topic. There are companies that have normalized sexual harassments or tend to normalize it. Companies sometimes don't feel the need to play importance to this topic as they don't understand the gravity behind allowing small sexual harassment acts pass.
ReplyDelete