Guide To Handling Sexual or Non-Sexual Harassment at Work

Whether you have had a co-worker make advances at you or you’ve had a manager make mean comments at you, both these circumstances count as harassment in the workplace. As we speak, there are so many who are experiencing these kinds of situations at their workplace so it is extremely important to know how to handle a situation as such.

Often times, many employees endure these situations as they are not aware about the punishments and the consequences in place for these types of behaviors within the workplace.

Whether you are facing a situation of this sort or you’re just hoping to educate yourself on the subject, we urge you to read the following as this is a complete guide on how you can conduct yourself if you were to ever find yourself in such a situation.

Educate Yourself

When you’re in a professional environment, you cannot simply raise a complaint often times as there are ways to go about it. If you’re reading this, you’re in a good place so we highly urge you to always educate yourself on harassment laws or labor laws in Sri Lanka and the correct protocol to take if you were to experience it within the confines of your workplace.

If there is a document such as a company employee handbook or anything else that tackles the correct protocol to take when filing a complaint or raising up an issue of this sort, read up and educate yourself first.

Identify the Type of Harassment

There are a variety of types of harassment that occurs in the workplace so it is very important to identify what your situation is before going to raise any concerns with regards to the issue that you are facing at your workplace.

There are a number of types of harassment such as sexual harassment or verbal harassment so it is important to identify it early on.

Report It

The best thing to do in case of any type of harassment in the workplace is reporting it to your higher management and raising this issue up with them instead of staying silent about it and hoping it goes away on its own.

For many, reporting an incident as such may come with guilt or shame but reporting it is the most important thing that you can do at a time like this.

Once reported, the management of the company will look into the issue and the party responsible will have to face the consequences of it. If the issue is dismissed and overlooked by your employer, you always have the right to go further.

Emotional Support

Whether you are experiencing sexual harassment or verbal harassment in the workplace, it is very important to surround yourself with a lot of emotional support during a time like this. Emotional support could come through fellow co-workers or even friends and family. Regardless of where it comes from, it is important that you have all the support that you can get during a time like this in your life and in your work life.

If the experience has been very traumatic for you, we also recommend seeking professional help and attending therapy sessions to cope with the emotions and shame that you are feeling during this time in your life.

Keep Records

It is important in any case like this that your story doesn’t change because that proves to authorities that the story isn’t fabricated.

In order to maintain the memory of the situation, try to keep records of every little detail of the incident that you faced as this will help you in the long run.

Your workplace should never be a place where you feel unsafe or unheard so we urge you to read the above mentioned and gather information on how you can tackle harassment in the workplace in the correct manner.

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