Recently, I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues, a small-town girl, who doesn’t want to hurt anybody, who wants to do her own work and who doesn’t want people to think that she is arrogant just because she is beautiful. She wants to stay away from lime-light. But these are few things she hasn’t got in this society. After joining corporate world, she thought, probably she will meet more mature and professional people but unfortunately that has remained illusion for her. Although, I have heard such incidents many times, but this time I was hearing it from first person point of view.
In India, a land of suppressed feelings and low female-to-male ratio, it has been a challenge for administration at all levels to curtail the incidents of eve-teasing. Where, in places like Mumbai, girls are ready to take head-on with those road-side Romeos, a small-town girl is still scared of confronting her teasers. At many occasions, it’s even more difficult for a girl to work in an office because she finds many of her colleagues are not professionals but are X-ray machines who always try to scan her from multiple angles. She feels intimidated of confronting them. She doesn’t want to complain to HR because she understands that may end-up ruining the career of that person and she herself may become the villain in her own organization.
In corporate world, where we think that we provide a safe and relaxed environment for female employees, it is even easier for those who get involved in such teasing. This is because, in most of the offices, contact details of all employees are so easily available that no romeo needs to make any effort in getting a contact number or email address of a girl. In fact, with the excuse of some unnecessary work, these guys keep interrupting their female colleagues through online messaging software. These guys either are not aware or do not understand the gravity of the potential issue that could cost them dearly. They might not be aware about the incident, when a person who could have been the CEO of India’s second largest IT organization had to resign on similar charges.
This problem is so much imbibed in our society that to find a one solution of this is almost impossible. But as managers, at whatever level we are, we are required to ensure that we are approachable but professional with all of our colleagues. We should ensure that we ourselves do not get involved in any such activity because that would be detrimental to the project activities, organization’s culture and confidence of our female colleagues in their managers and organization in whole.
We, ourselves, should avoid calling our sub-ordinates (especially person from opposite sex) after office hours unless there is some urgent official work that requires her intervention. We should not initiate and ask any of our female colleagues for lunch/dinner out of office because she might not be able to say no but she might not like that as well and still she has to do because you are her senior. We should also avoid asking them any personal question unless she initiates the conversation because those questions might make her uncomfortable. We should only show our business towards what is required at work. You might not have any wrong intention but it’s your responsibility that you don’t give wrong impression as well.
In short, it is our highest responsibility that we walk and ensure all of our sub-ordinates are walking this thin line of professionalism very carefully. Any wrong step may ruin your image, confidence of your employees in you and the organization’s culture. We should strive to provide a safe and professional environment to all of our colleagues. It’s not only HR’s job.
