Workplace Sexual Harassment – Ways, Impacts, Prevention and Solution

Workplace sexual harassment is referred to as workplace harassment because it is the most common type of harassment that occurs and is reported over the workplace, targeting women.

The trend is finding augmentation with the increased women workforce in the businesses. The reported instances of the same incident are on the rise because the proportion of women employees is increasing, so are the cases of harassment.

• Inappropriate touching
• Request for sexual favors
• Unwanted sexual advances
• Verbal conduct of a sexual nature
• Making crude or sexual remarks
• Sending pornography or inappropriate communication without consent
• Quid pro quo

There are many ways in which workplace harassment takes place. They include Inappropriate touching, Request for sexual favors, Unwelcome sexual advances, Verbal conduct of a sexual nature, Making crude or sexual remarks, Sending pornography or inappropriate communication without consent, and Quid pro quo. Let’s discuss all of them.

Inappropriate touching refers to physically connecting your female co-worker out of lust or desire. It adds to the victim’s insecurity to work independently, without any fear, and perform up to one’s potential.

It is when male employees at the workplace ask their female workers for sexual relationships or favor. It widely happens at the workplace, as reported in many studies.

When male co-workers look to advance towards females physically, they act in a sloppy way to get physical connection with their colleagues.

Several cases reported the verbal comments of the male colleagues about females of sexual nature. The comments relate to the physical appearance of the females and targeted at provoking the female to favor the colleague sexually.

Crude or sexual remarks include untidy comments and conversations with the female co-worker while talking about professional matters to identify the female’s reaction to the situation.

The most common type of workplace harassment with females is the one mentioned above. It takes off by sending pornographic or vulgar content to the female co-worker to provoke the sexual desire.

Besides this, many cases are reported that suggest inappropriate communication of the male staff with their female colleague over the communication channels. IT is happened most commonly by using social networking apps.

The communication routes typically one-way traffic only, without any involvement and consent of the female.

This type of sexual harassment is inspired by the phrase “this for that.” It usually occurs when the females are on the verge of getting their due professional share, i.e., a lady worker expects to get a promotion or increment, and her male boss clubs the career advancement with the sexual relationship.

The case finds its traces in the recruitment of females employees as well.

Let’s take a look at the breaking statistics regarding workplace sexual harassment of female employees.

• The victims do not report 72% of the harassment cases due to the fear of reputation or credibility loss or prolonged disciplinary action
• 69% of the female employees sexually harassed in a professional fixture
• 72% of the working women reported that they had faced harassment issues from their organizational higher-ups
• 57% of the working women left or switched their jobs due to workplace harassment
• 75% of the females who reported such cases had faced resistance or retaliation in one way or the other

The acts of harassment create a lasting impact on the women’s mental and moral standing. It challenges mental health, compromises her performance, depletes her economic standing, and poses a leadership gap for the organizations.

The instances of harassment significantly impact the overall balance of one’s life. It affects the mental health and stability and restricts them from working independently without any psychological and physical fear.

It also impacts the employee’s performance, resulting in delayed assignments because of the mental challenge faced by the victim.

A large proportion of working women favor leaving jobs out of the issues of harassment. The act collectively impacts the overall family balance and economic situation and the family’s standing as a whole.

Suppose the worker facing harassment issues belongs to senior-level management and leaves the job out of the situation. In that case, it can be chaotic for the organization as a whole. It can make a leadership gap that can be hard to handle immediately.

• There should be a clear corporate code of ethics in place that should be followed regarding the prevention of harassment
• A firm HR policy should be devised to cope with the challenge and to punish the accused employees massively in monetary terms
• The policy should be symbolized to add it to the subconscious mind of male employees, i.e., and there can be posters showing up, “Sexual harassment is a crime and strictly prohibited.”

It is observed that harassment charges have something to do with ill practices. It is found that several female employees use the charge as a weapon to harass the male employees with their reputation and credibility.

The male employees are considered as soft-target to strike by this charge to get unlawful favors and benefits. So, this aspect also needs attention and needed to be addressed.

Going around the discussion, the best solution to cope with workplace harassment is by use of monitoring of business devices.

It can help a lot in catering to the issue. An acceptable monitoring solution can track and monitor everything performing on and around the business device, be it a computer or a mobile phone.

We have conducted an extensive review and found OgyMogy as the best employee monitoring software currently. It can spy on Mac, Windows, and Android operating systems efficiently.

Many features of spying OgyMogy solution add to the security of the females at the workplace alongside protecting the interests and credibility of males from false charges of harassment.

Let’s discuss the most striking feature in the discussed aspect.

The spy app OgyMogy, after installation on the target device, allows the employer to monitor all the employees in real-time actively.

It protects the females all the way, as it allows the employer to bug the mic or front or back camera of the phone or computer to know about the real-time insights of the surroundings of an employee.

• Mic bug in real-time or in past
• Bugging front or back camera in real-time or in past

Suppose a female co-worker accuses a male colleague of harassment. In that case, the employer can trace the specific time frame for the surrounding activities using the monitoring software, thus getting a clear view of the situation.

The monitoring software allows to extensively tracking all the communication performed using social media apps.

As reported in many cases, many female employees accused male co-workers of sending intimidating and provoking sexual comments and messages over social networking platforms and in SMS.

So, monitoring social networking apps and internal storage of the business devices of employees will earn the employer a fair hand at identifying any such activity and taking necessary action in return.

The ways, impacts, prevention, and solution of coping with workplace sexual harassment is discussed. The best solution to address the issue is by using a business device monitoring software, which earns an honest insight to the employer about all the activities of the employees.