Unwanted Attention

Unwanted attention

WINNING WAYS by DATIN T.D. AMPIKAIPAKAN

SEXUAL harassment is a topic that stirs up emotions in the corporate world due to its infinite variations and varying degrees of seriousness, thereby making it a subject that is difficult to discuss.

Organisations should take great pains to define it. The open-ended nature of the law demands that we understand what real sexual harassment is before we cry wolf. There are some guidelines and these are a start:


a.. Unwanted remarks about your sexuality or gender.

a.. Offensive behaviour which is intentional and/or repeated.

a.. Behaviour that is unwanted and not reciprocated.

a.. It interferes with your work or the office environment becomes uncomfortable.
To give you an example of what this means, let me relate an incident that happened to an employee recently.

At a corporate annual dinner, one of the bosses decided to engage in a little flirtation with a junior employee which eventually led to serious sexual assault.

This was clearly a case where power and position allowed a man to take unfair advantage of an unsuspecting junior executive. The victim reported the incident.

The corporate network is often unsure of what action to take with regard to sexual misconduct, and junior executives with no social, economic or political clout often slink away in shame while the culprit gets away.

It is appalling that in this day and age, cases of sexual harassment are still not taken seriously.

From a woman's point of view, sexual harassment can be cruel, disgusting and very frightening, often leaving her traumatised.

No woman should be put in a position where she is forced to enter into a relationship just because she needs to protect her livelihood.

A woman should not be offended when her male colleague is easy-going and misinterprets his wicked sense of humour as sexual harassment.

Avoid jokes about sexual harassment.

People have been falsely accused of sexual harassment because of such jokes.

What then can you do to stop sexual harassment?


a.. If you are a victim of real harassment, take action. Do not accept it. Do not be frightened or intimidated because you need the job. You have rights. Look around and see the kind of people who get harassed. Confident people never get bullied or harassed.

a.. If you see someone in the office who is being harassed, take action. Be indignant. If women do not help each other, who will help them? Accompany the victim to report the harassment.

a.. If the boss is harassing the employees, get out of that office. You can always find another job.

a.. If you think you can handle someone who is harassing you, then you could try attacking his ego. Smile and tell the person that his attempts are comical and that you are not interested.

a.. If the person continues, then give him fair warning. Give the person a second chance but if the harassment continues say: "Look, I have already told you how I feel. You chose to ignore it. This is my last warning and if you try this once more, I am going to report it to HR."
Take action if your warnings are ignored. Go appeal to the good sense of the most senior person in management and do it quickly.

If you are a victim of sexual harassment, there is a professional way of handling it. Consider the following:


a.. Control your emotions. You can never make a strong case when your are emotional or hysterical. If you work for a large company, then look up the employee manuals. They must have guidelines on how they deal with this behaviour.

a.. Make a detailed list of the things that happened. Include the time, place and type of action made by the perpetrator. Be clear and precise, and say what you did during the harassment.

a.. If you work for a large organisation and the person harassing you is the boss, it will take great courage for you to go to the Board of Directors. If you think you can handle it, do so. If you work for a small company, just resign and go.
Sexual harassment is not confined to women only. In recent years more and more men have experienced sexual harassment from their female bosses.

Similar action need to be taken but it should be done with due consideration so that your chances of getting another job is not jeopardised.

There was a case of a man who resigned after suffering three weeks of harassment by a woman boss. Wanting to be careful about what he wrote in his letter of resignation, he did not directly accuse his boss but just added one sentence in his letter to the HR manager.

He wrote: "Like my four male predecessors during the past two years, I am resigning to seek a position with better prospect for advancement in the management of an organisation."

Without making a direct accusation, he implied what the real trouble was.

The HR manager was very perceptive and looked into the previous files of the men who walked away. He took the matter up with the senior management and the woman boss was gone in no time.

That's professionalism laced with responsibility and accountability, with regard to protecting the company's employees.