Ten Reasons to Challenge Sexual Harassment at Work

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‘Calling out’ unacceptable behaviours in the workplace can be hard – especially if you feel intimidated. Go through this thought process, and it gets a lot easier:

 

  1. 1. Remember – you don’t just have the right to challenge inappropriate behaviour, you also have a responsibility. Everyone who does something – however tiny – plays their part in changing their workplace culture for the better. Bit by bit …
  2. 2. Nobody wants to be the first to intervene – because being first means being the only one, at least for a while. But someone has to, so why not you?
  3. 3. If nobody acts, then everybody begins to think that they are in the wrong for feeling uncomfortable – and they feel increasingly less inclined to do anything. This is called normalisation – and it’s how workplace cultures become toxic …
  4. 4. In workplaces with lots of banter and ‘knockabout’ it’s easy to think you’re being a killjoy, and not fitting in with the culture. Nobody likes to be the odd one out. But if you stay silent, you become part of that culture …
  5. 5. Culture is no excuse. Bad is bad. Unacceptable is unacceptable. And situations which are left to their own devices get worse .. and worse … and worse …
  6. 6. The more you – and others – stand by and let bad stuff happen, the more the perpetrators will continue doing what they’re doing. But once one person acts, others will begin to give themselves permission to do the same. With each intervention comes another, and another …
  7. 7. It’s not above your pay grade to act. Even if you don’t intervene directly, you can mention it to someone who can. Talk to someone senior – or someone influential. Once you report it to someone – they are obliged to look into it  …
  8. 8. Nobody is so valuable to an organisation that they’re immune. Remember Jeremy Clarkson? He didn’t sexually harass anyone – but he did punch his producer. Clarkson was worth millions to the BBC in overseas revenue – but he still had to go.
  9. 9. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing. Even if you’re thinking – on the way home from work, or days or weeks later – ‘I should have said something there. I should have done something then’, it’s never too late to act. Better late than never. And sometimes – late is even better. It shows you’ve thought about it properly.
  10. 10. One of the biggest causes of ‘normalised’ toxic behaviour is the ‘elephant in the room’. Vaporise the elephant by pointing to it. Call it out – and say what we ‘all know is going on here’. And – pffffff – the elephant disappears.
  • Coming soon: assertive language patterns and body language techniques for when the time comes to take a deep breath – and say something!