Dealing with sexual harassment
Strategies managers should use to deal with sexual harassment or prevent it from occurring in the first place
Sexual harassment can lead to anxiety, severe stress, depression and trauma if left unchallenged. This is why Donna Butler recommends that you never ignore any inappropriate words or behaviour. She lists all the strategies managers should use to deal with sexual harassment or prevent it from occurring in the first place.
Sexual harassment can lead to anxiety, severe stress, depression and trauma if left unchallenged. This is why Donna Butler recommends that you never ignore any inappropriate words or behaviour. She lists all the strategies managers should use to deal with sexual harassment or prevent it from occurring in the first place.
Dealing with sexual harassment
with Donna Butler
An employee, Dan, is being touched and spoken to in ways that make him uncomfortable. The harasser fails to acknowledge the behavior and laughs it off. Dan gets help in addressing this behavior and ensuring it stops.
Takeaways:
Sexual harassment is unwanted behavior. It can happen to people of any gender and any sexual orientation. The key is that it is not asked for.
The person who harasses somebody else is responsible for their actions.
Managers are also responsible, from both a moral and legal perspective, in the sense that they must step in and ensure a safe working environment. They must not ignore such behavior or let it persist. They must approach the situation with sensitivity and fairness to both parties and realize that sexual harassment can get worse if ignored and that formal company actions as well as legal proceedings with police and prosecution are possible.
Apply this:
- Do you fully understand your organizational and legal guidance around sexual harassment? If not, where do you need to go for such information?
- How can you make clear that sexual harassment is always unacceptable, and people will be held responsible for their actions?
- How can you prepare to intervene early at any sign of sexual harassment?
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