Opinion: Progress against sexual harassment and bullying must not stall
It’s been five years since the #MeToo Movement took the internet by storm and became Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. The Silence Breakers raised their voices and said “enough is enough.” Women are tired of being sexually harassed, pacified, gaslighted and retaliated against for speaking the truth of a harassment situation.
We’re coming up on almost 10 years of my personal anniversary for speaking out on the truth of my situation at the Iowa Statehouse. I have no regrets in my choice to speak up and against the sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination I experienced. And five years after the #MeToo Movement flashed onto the cultural scene, we saw our workplaces change just as fast due to a worldwide pandemic. While the physical workplace may not be contained in the same space, the challenges associated with work have, in many ways, increased and manifested in ways we have yet to untangle.
As pandemic lockdowns ended nationwide, we saw a positive opportunity and willingness to self-advocate: openly discussing what works (and doesn’t work) in our career and job environments. Our willingness, as a whole, to start discussions on these sensitive and contentious workplace issues speaks to how far we’ve come.
Something that hasn’t changed is the fact that harassment, bullying, and retaliation loom large over many new working environments. It may look and feel a bit different in a post-pandemic world, but it’s there, from micro-aggressions that leave us frustrated and confused, to how to handle the power-hungry micromanager who gaslights you and your work. Sadly, there remains a lack of information and education on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.
As I’ve traveled around the country in the past few years, speaking to workers about their environments, I’ve found that many don’t bother to read their employee handbook or know the details within contracts and working agreements they sign. It’s the first recommendation I give to anyone: Know what you sign, read your handbook, and understand what your employee policies do and don’t do for you. It may come as a shock, but over one-third of the U.S. workforce is bound by a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. Those NDAs are so strict they often prohibit employees from spousal discussions — deeming a spouse a third party. If found out, the employee could be sued for breach of contract. Imagine being unable to share even minor frustrations with a loving, trusted partner and being sued for it!
Congress recently passed the Speak Out Act, which bans employer NDAs throughout the country. The bipartisan nature of the bill speaks volumes in how far we’ve come in changing work environments for the better. Those NDAs primarily benefited and protected aggressors who retained their position and power, and in some cases, go on to behave badly in other workplaces, leaving a wake of emotional damage on more employees and brand degradation for their employer.
So how can Iowans make a difference in their world, and move workplaces toward safer, more equitable places?
We must continue to recognize and call-out inappropriateness when it’s experienced. From the “Iowa-nice” manager who picks and chooses her favorites, bullying good employees out of an organization, to the office jokester who always seems to skirt the line of humor and decency while their cohorts roll their eyes. We need to get comfortable with talking about the realities of our experiences, relinquishing the secrecy associated with experienced bad and toxic behavior. All employees deserve to work in a harassment and bully-free environment.
We must continue to have conversations that focus on the recognition of our self-worth as an employee and continue to appropriately self-advocate against toxicity. We need more allies starting conversations and standing up for those who are targeted. These conversations can change the entire workplace for the better. Workplace allies will move the needle, build strong and trustworthy relationships at a place where everyone has the same goal: to do good work.
Finally, we need to explore stricter accountability standards for harassers and aggressors and think outside the box when it comes to consequences. Wage garnishment and restitution can incentivize good or even decent behavior.
American workers spend one-third of their life at a workplace. Those workplaces should be respectful, trusted environments, where people are able to do their best work, free from harassment, bullying and retaliation.
Kirsten D. Anderson is the author of "More Than Words: Turn #MeToo into #ISaidsomething" and an advocate for harassment-free workplaces.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Progress against harassment and bullying must not stall
