With advancing technology sexual harassment can now be found online and in private messages. Coworkers can bring the harassment home with you and make rude or inappropriate comments on photos and send inappropriate texts or private messages. This technology also allows people to be very persistent, allowing individuals to send multiple messages which can also constitute as harassment.
Technology creates issues of misunderstanding as well. In person much of what we say to one another is body language, inflection while speaking or facial expression. Over e-mail, text message or social media these important communication tools become invisible. With these communication tools hidden, people are more likely to be misunderstood. This misunderstanding does not always mean that certain comments or actions are appropriate.
In an article written by Kiri Blakeley for Forbes Magazine, she notes that sexual harassment in the workplace no longer looks like a man chasing a female secretary around a desk like portrayed on the HBO series Mad Men. In her article she retells the story of a women who was on a business trip. Their company was staying in a hotel and she was bothered with phone calls late at night from a coworker insisting she party with them in the hotel bar. The woman in the story said, “When you’re not the one in power, and someone does something like that, you just feel unsafe.” (Forbes, 2009).
These advances become problematic for people trying to look past it. It can become distracting during work and make the workplace a hostile or uncomfortable environment. The problem with sexual harassment in the workplace is reporting the issues. Understandably, some people are hesitant to report such problems as it can create awkward situations or put a strain on their work relationships and their standing in the company.
These types of sexual advances in a workplace can drive people to quit their jobs, take leaves or relocate. There are many ways for people to get help in situations like this. There are crisis lines, support websites and an extensive amount of information that can be helpful to people in these situations.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/06/sexual-harassment-office-forbes-woman-leadership-affairs.html
Technology creates issues of misunderstanding as well. In person much of what we say to one another is body language, inflection while speaking or facial expression. Over e-mail, text message or social media these important communication tools become invisible. With these communication tools hidden, people are more likely to be misunderstood. This misunderstanding does not always mean that certain comments or actions are appropriate.
In an article written by Kiri Blakeley for Forbes Magazine, she notes that sexual harassment in the workplace no longer looks like a man chasing a female secretary around a desk like portrayed on the HBO series Mad Men. In her article she retells the story of a women who was on a business trip. Their company was staying in a hotel and she was bothered with phone calls late at night from a coworker insisting she party with them in the hotel bar. The woman in the story said, “When you’re not the one in power, and someone does something like that, you just feel unsafe.” (Forbes, 2009).
These advances become problematic for people trying to look past it. It can become distracting during work and make the workplace a hostile or uncomfortable environment. The problem with sexual harassment in the workplace is reporting the issues. Understandably, some people are hesitant to report such problems as it can create awkward situations or put a strain on their work relationships and their standing in the company.
These types of sexual advances in a workplace can drive people to quit their jobs, take leaves or relocate. There are many ways for people to get help in situations like this. There are crisis lines, support websites and an extensive amount of information that can be helpful to people in these situations.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/06/sexual-harassment-office-forbes-woman-leadership-affairs.html