Companies must get cracking on online harassment

Sexual harassment in the virtual workspace can refer to inappropriate comments on chat, lewd gestures on call and insisting on calls at odd hours, among other things

Home is where the heart is, and, sometimes also where the harassment is. A report in this paper outlined sexual harassment not at the workplace but at home.

With Work From Home (WFH) becoming the new normal, rules that are part of your physical space should apply in the virtual world too. Unfortunately, we see that most corporates have not communicated guidelines or rules to their employees in case they experience harassment by seniors or co-workers at any level while working from home.

It is disappointing to note that many organisations may not have formulated rules at all for virtual work and distance work. What is uppermost though is that sexual harassment can and does occur in the virtual space too, and can be a reality in the space we inhabit currently.

It is both the perpetrators and the targets that must learn that harassment is harassment whether in office or outside. The latter must have the avenues to complain, even from home, while the former, and this is an important part, must learn that one cannot and does not have automatic immunity. The perpetrators of this harassment often use the it-was-only-a-mail or only-a-message as excuses for their behaviour. This does not hold any water.

Sometimes, harassment can take place through phone calls at inappropriate times, the harasser can deliberately dress in a certain way when making work-related video calls. There is a crossing of lines when it comes to the personal and professional. Off colour jokes passed on through mail or interspersed in work communication are portrayed as harmless fun.

Companies need to define harassment, set guidelines, communicate these to employees and have an avenue where people can complain if they feel they are being harassed during WFH.

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