Great strides have been made in sexual harassment prevention in the past couple decades. Read a brief account of its roots, and what an effective sexual harassment training program should include.
Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace has become one of the most widely-known and implemented parts of any elementary, intermediate or advanced ethics training program. Sexual harassment includes unwarranted, unwanted physical or verbal behavior, sexual in nature, that makes an individual feel uncomfortable – deeming it as abuse.
In the corporate world, sexual harassment gained wide recognition in the infamous Clarence Thomas hearing of 1991, resulting in its legal and ethical awareness in the workplace. Additionally, it is now the state law of California for companies of 50 or more employees to be trained bi-annually in sexual harassment (see: California AB1825 sexual harassment training).
The purpose of sexual harassment training is to identify and explain what is considered to be unacceptable behavior in the workplace.
When the sexual harassment portion of ethics training is introduced, the topic is typically presented as one that is very subjective or individualistic: while some may consider certain behaviors to be trivial, others may consider it to be threatening. Trainees are cautioned to practice responsibility and tact in the office. The training program should give examples of what is and is not acceptable behavior, according to the company’s own guidelines. Due to the very subjective nature of sexual harassment, proper ethics training suggests that trainees are to avoid situations that create the potential of making someone feel embarrassed, upset or uncomfortable as a whole. After all, even the most discreet examples of sexual harassment may result in the same disastrous consequences as the more obvious and up-front ones.
To help dissolve doubt or question during ethics training, instructors should spend time discussing various situations that compose the definition of “sexual harassment.” These may include examples from both “discreet” and “blatant” forms:
Tags: harassment
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