Harassed At The Workplace!
The Tarun Tejpal case has really rocked the workplace, and how. Everybody is harassed - er, not sexually, but stressed out about it
“Hey Handsome,” a colleague wished a young male co-worker, in her usual breezy way this morning, as she walked into office. Suddenly she stopped in her tracks and bit her tongue and said “Oh dear, I better be careful – don’t misconstrue please. ”
The Tarun Tejpal case has really rocked the workplace, and how. Everybody is harassed - er, not sexually, but stressed out about it.
In fact, I am going to stick my neck out and predict that we are going to see a fair bit of awkwardness creep into day to day workplace activities. Bosses who forward those x-rated jokes without thinking twice, colleagues who josh around and put arms around each other, are all going to start worrying that their innocent actions might be misunderstood. Everyone’s now going to have to mind their language and their wandering hands.
Of course, not so innocent stuff too happens at the workplace. It's quite prevalent. Indeed, this morning the entire discussion around the watercooler and tea breaks revolved around all the episodes – rumoured and verified - of ogling, bottom pinching, lewd remarks one has heard at various workplaces we have worked in. Each one of us knows of cases of senior men in the profession who like to hire only women, or those who will pass a copy faster if brought to them by a young pretty intern versus the bearded intellectual deskie, who will be growled at.
But the common tendency has been to whisper about it, titter over it, make schoolboy jokes about and generally treat it with levity rather than the seriousness it deserves. We haven’t done much to scotch these things in the bud so to speak. Managers totally skirt the issue - I certainly have not heard of any manager reprimanding anyone over sexual harassment, rather he often joins in the levity.
Perhaps that’s why it has existed for so long. Just read a book by Julie Berebetisky titled Sexual Tension and Power and Sex Games. Despite the titillating title, it’s a rather academic tome, that gets into the history of sexual harassment at the workplace, and you will see how it has been going on for centuries. Since the time women entered the workplace, in fact.
Although it’s not a management book, but a historical look (view it here ), it’s still a book that managers should read as it will give them clues to tackle the issue at the workplace, how the forms of harassment have transformed.
Oh yes, several companies are already beginning to tackle the subject. Friends in consulting firms have described how at induction sessions the topic is discussed and gentle warnings issued. Also, they make it a point to stress that it’s not just women who need to be on guard, but men too. But media companies have not begun discussing it yet.
Meanwhile, with the kind of amplification power that Twitter and other social platforms have, I think it’s goodbye to trust at the workplace. It reminds me rather of my first trip to the US, where relatives over there warned me not to pinch the cheeks of babies in prams – however cute and cuddly, as there was a big deal going on about strangers touching little babies.
That’s what Tejpal and the series of assaulters before him have now gone and done to the workplace. Now, there is a layer of doubt, suspicion attached to every action. Bosses have gotten paranoid – to the extent I know some who will not sit behind closed doors if female co-workers are there. Make sure, that there are others in elevators (ah, the infamous elevator), if getting in with female colleagues and so on.
And the paranoia is shared by women workers. One colleague who was invited by a long standing source to meet him over coffee suddenly got hysterical. Reading a larger meaning into it. “Why is he inviting me to coffee? Is it above board?” she asked around suspiciously. Eh? Isn’t modern day reporting also about networking over coffee? Perhaps, no more. Unless a brawny colleague comes along as bodyguard!
chitra.narayanan@gmail.com
@ndcnn
Courtesy: Business World
