Workplace Harassment

Harassment is unfairly treated as a standard that all are expected to accept with good humour lest be labelled as ‘soft’ or a troublemaker. This is an outdated perspective within the culture and workplaces now have an active duty to target and reduce the level of harassment in the workplace.

There is no reasonable expectation to tolerate such behaviour that makes you uncomfortable or feel unsafe, especially in a working environment in which you are largely unable to remove yourself from. There are many options available to you for confronting this issue.

Within the Community:

Between a workplace and social events, small, tight-knit communities can still pose a threat to your comfort and safety when it comes to speaking up and protecting yourself from further harassment. Social isolation - or worse - can be a large factor in staying silent.

It only takes one person, one safe space for you to raise your concerns. An anonymous report to your boss or manager is a good first step, though it can be difficult putting yourself in that position. An alternative would be to speak to your domestic, govie, manager/boss’ wife etc. They have a close working relationship to the main household and are likely to be a strong and sympathetic ally.

Often, just calling out the behaviour is enough, a lot of passive harassment is an act of posturing or cowardice, and being called out on it by an authority figure is enough to set someone back in their place, labelling you as not worth the trouble.

Ideally, you would be in a position to directly challenge the incident yourself and confront the aggressor, however there are many cases where you simply won’t feel comfortable or safe to do so. In which case you can either

Talk to others in your workplace and seek support and solidarity. This achieves two goals, where you are gaining support and backup as the case may be, and you are also establishing a known ‘trail’ of incidents that can be used as evidence if the issue is later taken up with management
Or you can make an official workplace harassment complaint

Making an official workplace complaint

You can file a report through the Fair Work Commission, Australian Human Rights Commission, or by lodging complaints with other local government bodies.

It is important to know that workers have the right to refuse to carry out or stop unsafe work if the risk is serious and imminent. You may also decide to seek help from authorities if the behaviour involves physical assault or the threat of such.

After experiencing harassment, you should consider:

Seeking support – whether that’s from a friend, colleague or over the phone services
Report the incident – reporting is an effective strategy in deterring further offences
Keep a record of what happened – who, what, when and where

Some forms of harassment may be criminal acts I.e stalking, indecent exposure, obscene or threatening communications (social media posts, messages, phone calls etc.) These can be reported directly to the police.

What if I see or hear about sexual harrassment?

If you feel safe to do so, call out the behaviour - tell the aggressor that you object to their behaviour and request it to stop
- Diffuse the situation with light-hearted comments that gently express your disapproval i.e "What decade are you living in?"
Talk to the person experiencing harassment - ask them what support they need
- Express your disapproval about the incident
- Ask whether they’re okay - if they want to talk and if they need help to find information to decide what to do next.
Report to incident to your employer/manager/authority figure – please consider any privacy concerns of the person you are reporting on behalf of
- At least keep a detailed note of what occurred.
- Document what was said/done, by whom, when and where, and whether there were any other witnesses
Talk to your employer about the sexual harassment policies and reinforcing it in the workplace

The actions you take may need to be adapted to your situation. The focus should always be on the safety of you and/or the person being harassed.