Melbourne, Victoria Jun 20, 2019 (Issuewire.com) - An online survey has revealed that more than 77% of women in the workplace have encountered harassment. More than 53% reported leaving because of the incident/s, and 68% said that even though they reported the behavior to an HR manager the matter was left unresolved. The survey completed by a research team from The Savvy Changemaker has indeed gleaned insight into Australian workplaces.
Founder of ‘The Savvy Changemaker’; Julia Lorent said the National Survey reveals a host of issues in our country’s workplaces. The celebrated keynote speaker and mindset coach set out to gain more understanding of negative and positive behaviors in the workplace after she published on LinkedIn titled How to Spot a White-Ant in the Workplace- identifying negative behaviors. The overwhelming response to the article prompted the behavioral specialist to inquire further and structure a survey to identify both negative and positive actions.
Safe Work Australia published a report in 2016 that outlined how improving management commitment to psychological health and safety could be an innovative strategy to reduce lost productivity. However, a specific survey about harassment, unkind behavior or sexualized behavior against any gender has not been conducted by Safe Work Australia nor by any official representative in the safe work arena. With the aftermath of the #meetoo movement, Julia says that when you dig under the surface, this lack of attention and action based legislation is quite shocking. 53% of respondents from the survey reported that they had experienced sexually suggestive or aggressive behavior in the workplace.
“Even though many organizations have an Appropriate Behaviour at Workplace Policy now as a duty of care to staff, it is action based resolution and poor handling of these situations impacting all genders that requires urgent attention,” says Ms.Lorent.
“We also see a high occurrence of males who are harassed and bullied in the workplace, causing extreme stress and anxiety. We will be conducting another survey in the future to examine this issue closely and to start a conversation that should have been started well before now" said Julia.
Endorsed by Sociologist Dr. Roger Wilkinson, the survey has certainly sparked some interesting observations. A survey like this is important because it consolidates the findings and insights from previous research and explores contemporary ways of understanding how gender at work operates for the sample of respondents. This survey taps into women’s lived experience in the workplace since the #metoo movement called out what was unacceptable behaviour.
The statistics on positive and negative behaviors towards women in the workplace shine a light onto the necessity for everyone to know how to conduct themselves appropriately in the workplace. As Julia Lorent states, “the She’ll be right” attitude doesn't float anymore.”
The survey results can be found at https://thesavvychangemaker.com/life/women-in-the-workplace-survey/
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The SavvyChangemaker kirsten@geelongsocialmedia.com 0412810078 https://thesavvychangemaker.com
