Introduction
In the first scenario Danielle is the practice manager of a large dental practice in the city. As she is the only female staff in the management level the CEO often calls her as the ‘office mum’. The CEO also expects her to get coffee for the monthly meetings and organize birthdays in office.
I am certain the CEO would not have given such names to male employees and therefore these are clear signs of sexism and that Danielle is not being ‘overly sensitive.’
Now there are a lot of ways to deal with workplace harassment. However, she has to keep in mind the fact that she cannot be overtly rude to the CEO or his other colleagues. Firstly, she has to learn to say no. It is inappropriate that only she is asked to make coffee arrangements in monthly meetings every time, but if she tells them she cannot do it any more by citing a few reasons like she has personal engagements, the office staff cannot force her to do it. This is often termed as the bad barista move .
Secondly, what she can do is to pretend she has not quite got the joke and ask the CEO to repeat. Repeating something sexist like calling a woman ‘office mum’ usually makes the person realize that he has been committing a mistake and he might not repeat it again.
Lastly, she can turn the tables on the CEO by asking with a sense of humour if he would refer to a male colleague as an ‘office dad’. She might just even pop the question what the CEO would have done if she was a guy. These questions will be non threatening but Danielle’s point that she is being treated unfairly will stand.
In the second scenario an employee constantly jokes on men being ‘bipolar’, ‘going postal’ or going ‘off their meds, I as the team leader know that another employee who is sitting within earshot of these comments is on medication for depression. Here’s how I can help the latter:
Firstly, the person cracking the joke can be interrupted early. Something like, ‘Hey! Let’s not talk about this,’ can work wonders. The person cracking the joke might get the tone and change the topic. This is the most common way to stop a person from making bigotry comments.
If that does not stop him from doing it, maybe I would have to take the option of going up the management ladder and complaining. I might find a few people who think alike in upper management and ask them to help maintain the calm in office environment. Usually when these matters reach the upper management levels they are looked into with seriousness.
Another way can be to band together with likeminded colleagues and team members and ask the person to change his or her tone or behaviour. Generally, if this can be done without humiliating the person, then it will work out just fine.
In Scenario three I find myself in a lunchroom of an office where a colleague makes derogatory statements about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Hearing the same another colleague who belongs to the community becomes upset and leaves the room. This usually can create a huge impact in work.
People not working together and having differences at work place can spell doom for productivity. The colleague who left the room is clearly upset with the comments and is very unlikely to work with 100 per cent efficiency for a day or two.
Customers to who are of the same origin might get affected by the comments which can reduce sales. However, the comments might not have broken any laws as the person was expressing his opinion, but then again there are certain restrictions in expressing one’s views.
The issues affecting the situation here are racism and biasness. The non-indigenous people should know how the Aborigines have struggled to make it this far in life. Almost half of the people of the community are still without jobs, whereas in comparison only 24.4 percent of non-indigenous people were unemployed. They are the underprivileged sections of the society who need our support.
The support can be shown by going to the colleague and speaking about the issue. I can try and motivate him by saying he is as big a part in the office as the others. I can ask the one who made the statement to go and apologize to him. This will give him confidence and he can give in his full efforts again.
References
"At Work." Teaching Tolerance. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Aug. 2017.
Cunningham, Joan, and Yin C. Paradies. "Patterns and correlates of self-reported racial discrimination among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, 2008–09: analysis of national survey data." International journal for equity in health 12.1 (2013): 47.
Procházková, Eliška. Aboriginals under the White Supremacy. Diss. Masarykova univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, 2016.
Rutherford-Morrison, Lara. "8 Ways You Can Shut Down Sexism In The Workplace." Bustle.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Aug. 2017.
Stamarski, Cailin S., and Leanne S. Son Hing. "Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism." Frontiers in psychology 6 (2015).
Trenerry, Brigid, and Yin Paradies. "Organizational assessment: an overlooked approach to managing diversity and addressing racism in the workplace." Journal of Diversity Management (Online) 7.1 (2012): 11.
