3 Facts about Sexual Harassment Training
If you’re reading this article, odds are good that you are either an employee or an employer facing new state regulations about sexual harassment training.
Perhaps you think it’s a waste of time. You’ve built a team that works well together and produces amazing results. You’re sure that harassment has no foothold in your place of business.
Or maybe you’re a woman and you think there’s nothing for you to learn at this training because a woman can’t sexually harass anyone.
These are a few of the common misconceptions that training is designed to help combat.
In the nineteen seventies, there was a popular cartoon series called Schoolhouse Rock. Each episode started with the theme song. The cartoon’s mascot, Rocky (get it?) appeared and told the audience that, “It’s great to learn because knowledge is power!”
In this article we’re going to look at three powerful facts about sexual harassment training. By the end of the article you won’t just be willing to go to training, you might even be excited!
- Anyone Can Commit Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment isn’t limited to one particular group. Anyone: man or woman, gay or straight, can knowingly or unknowingly commit this workplace infraction.
Maybe you’re taking a look at the last sentence and it really has you reeling. If so, let’s take a closer look at what the definition of harassment is.
First, harassment doesn’t have to be sexual in nature in order to qualify as sexual harassment. It simply has to create an unsafe work environment for anyone based on their gender or sexual orientation.
What does this look like in practice?
Say you’re leading a meeting and you have a task to assign to your team. You look around the room and declare, “I’m going to assign the design of the math and science center to Devon because men are naturally better at those subjects.” While you may believe that to be true, you have just unknowingly committed an infraction.
This is an example of a derogatory statement aimed towards women. Even if you did not intend to offend anyone – perhaps you think that because the women on your team know you, they know that you are not hateful. But you cannot control how other people perceive your statements. You can only learn from your mistakes and correct them in the future.
Click here to find a government fact sheet about sexual harassment.
- Retaliation is Illegal
What is retaliation? It is the act of using any leverage against an employee either to compel them to behave in a sexual manner or to prevent them from making an official complaint.
What does this look like in practice?
Let’s say Daniel Jones is the head of the marketing department at Pretty Pretty Blue Jeans. Marissa is a new member of his team. One day after work, Daniel asks Marissa to stay behind after the rest of the team has left for the day.
He brings her in his office and asks her for a sexual favor. Marissa refuses.
The next day she comes in to work and finds that she has been demoted. She’s working in the mail room from now on.
This is an example of retaliation. Her career was hindered as a direct result of Daniel’s inappropriate behavior. Notice that Marissa was not terminated in this example. That is because it is not only termination that counts as retaliation.
- An Internal Investigation is not Your Only Recourse
If you think you have been the victim of sexual harassment, you may have decided not to make a complaint. You might have worked at your company for a while and seen other people make similar complaints only to wait in vain for a resolution.
If your company’s human resources department isn’t committed to rooting out sexual harassment, don’t give up hope.
Many states have resources for you to make an official complaint. For example, the state of New York has a website for you to file an official complaint. Click the link: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/index.page to find out more.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t work in an office.
The protection has been extended to a number of professions that might find it difficult to make complaints because they are employed by an individual or family.
If you are a healthcare worker, a nanny, a housekeeper, or anyone else who works inside the home, know that the same resources are available to you.
If you’ve learned anything in this article, you’re in luck. You will find that sexual harassment training New York offers you valuable information like this and so much more.
Sexual harassment is a scourge on the modern workplace. It decreases productivity, increases employee turnover, and decreases the quality of life for those involved. Remember, knowledge really is power.
