Sexual Harassment as a Health and Safety Issue

This article discusses sexual harassment as a health and safety issue in the workplace. It explores different types of workplace harassment, the impact on work and mental health, and provides recommendations for responding to and preventing sexual harassment. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a safe and healthy working environment.

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Sexual harassment as a health and safety issue
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Date

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Introduction.
Sexual harassment is a pestering technique related to nature of sex and the inappropriate
or unwelcome promises of rewards in exchange of sex favors. It includes variety of actions from
sexual abuse or assault to mild transgression. Sexual harassment may occur in either workplace,
school, home, churches, etc. From HR perspective the concerns that surrounds workplace sexual
assault is that many employees are not comfortable to reporting the sexual harassment that occur
in workplace. This paper will main focus on sexual harassment as a health and safety issue.
Different kinds of work place harassments.
Sexual harassment is not permitted; it has been a big problem globally; every employer
should make sure that all the employees are protected from sexual harassment for a safe and
healthy working environment. An individual should act appropriately to prevent sexual
harassment and similarly respond accordingly in case it happens. It is sexual behavior that is
unacceptable it may occur in any of the following forms: asking for sex to give favors at work,
talking about someone’s sexual life, touching somebody, rape, making jokes that are sex-related
among many others. Every individual has a responsibility of behaving ethically to avoid
offending others, in cases where you may fall a victim of being harassed sexually, you can talk
about it with someone you can trust, confront whoever you feel is harassing you, inform your
superiors at work or speak to a peer counselor Bates (Henry & Powell 2015)
Sexual harassment could be from bosses, colleges, customers or any other person who is
involved with the organization’s operations. Every employer should ensure that the working
environment is healthy for all employees, they should, therefore, take all sexual complains
brought to them very seriously, find out more about the issue and take proper actions to make
sure that it won’t happen again. The reaction of the employer to reports of sexual harassment is

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key to the organization’s productivity, maintaining good interpersonal relationships in the
organization as well as avoiding liabilities. After following up with any sexual harassment
complaint, feedback should be given to the victim to make them feel safe and relieved to enable
them to work comfortably.
Impact on work
A working environment characterized by sexual harassments makes workers feel
uncomfortable; it may cause emotional problems such as low self-esteem, and spoil interpersonal
relationships among the workers and victims may also suffer mental illnesses. There are also
affected physically and show signs such as weight loss, reduced appetite, lack of sleep and
diseases such as high blood pressure. This health problem affects their financial stability as they
require money for treatment which may be more expensive; some may even opt to leave the job
to avoid harassments. It also affects the productivity of the organization as harassed employees
have no working morale and work under mental pressure giving poor results (McLaughlin,
Uggen & Blackstone 2017).
Sexual harassment may cause work stress that leads to decrease efficiency and
effectiveness when performing their duties if the harasser is superior, the employee cannot report
any matter to them or request for clarification on the issues that are not well understood. This
increases the errors made in the process and affects the whole organization at large. Every
organization should create awareness of sexual harassment to their employees and also come up
with rules that prevent and deal with sexual harassment. Employees who are not able to deal
appropriately with sexual harassment and are ashamed to share with a trusted person, they end up
suffering a lot of psychologically which has a tremendous and negative impact on their health
(Hom, Stanley, Spencer & Joiner2017).

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Impact on mental health
Sexual harassment may also lead to disorders such as anxiety, depression, hypertension
and stress or even worse mental health issues, all these effects may be long term, they affects the
working abilities of employees as well as economic factors of both the organization and workers
because victims will need money for therapy and the organization’s productivity also decreases
due to reduced efficiency and time lost when victims go for treatments. This effects may not go
away immediately even after the issue is addressed and is therefore wise to avoid it by all means.
It may also lead to abuse of drugs and alcohol as the victim tries to seek comfort which leads to
deadly diseases. A victim may also get infected to sexually transmitted infections or even HIV
which may cause trauma. Women experience sexual harassment more than men, and they
experience almost double the harassments as compared to men, this is because some people view
women as weaker beings and sometimes helpless (Ali, Zakaria, Zahari, Said, & Salle, 2015).
How to respond on sexual harassments.
Witnesses of sexual Harassment also have a responsibility of supporting the victims; they
should also report to senior authorities in cases where the victim is too shy to speak out, in case
the employer needs to investigate, they can give them the information required based on what
they witnessed. The employers should ensure that the abusers do not harass witnesses or
intimidated so that they won’t provide the right information. Nevertheless, employees can feel
that reporting to the employer is not enough and decide to report to the police as it is an illegal
act and the law can protect one, the harasser will then be dealt with according to the regulations.
The victims can as well decide to deal with it by themselves, this could be through
discussing the matter with the person you feel is harassing you, tell him that if he repeated the

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same mistake, you would report to the authorities and remind him of the consequences. Both can
meditate about the issue and agree on the way forward; this helps in creating a good and peaceful
working environment. This could happen through meeting face-to-face or sending a third party if
the victim does not feel safe; it is not the best way to deal with sexual harassment. You may also
decide to talk to a counselor and seek advice on how to respond to sexual harassment Bendixen,
Daveronis & Kennair 2018).
When a victim complains to the employer about sexual harassment, the employer must
take action to protect the victim in order to ensure that the working environment is safe and
healthy. The employer should give feedback to the employee by either moving the employee to a
new department and delegate new duties before completing the investigation, the employer can
request the people involved to take a leave so that investigation can be done or suspend the
harasser where the issue is severe. If the victim has to work with the harasser daily, she/he
should be advised on how to respond in the future (Malveaux, Rhodes, & Raby, 2019).
Who workers should report sexual harassments to and how they should deal with it.
HSPs (Health & Safety Representative) helps organizations to formulate rule and
disciplinary actions to deal with sexual harassment and also advising their employees on matters
related to sexual abuse. On the other hand, they can help victims to prepare and submit reports
on sexual harassment or be the support person. HSR should be fair to both sides and help in
avoiding conflict-of-interest. When the employer receives the report, the employer should deal
with it immediately, inform all the parties involved, protect the victims, support them, make sure
that the matter is dealt with confidentially, be fair to all parties through getting the correct
information and decide accordingly basing your decision on facts and the employer should also
keep records of the reports.

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Sometimes, victims of sexual abuse don’t report their problems because they fear to lose
their jobs or they may feel their life is at a threat if they said. Some feel inferior, while some
suffer due to discrimination according to gender, where some women think that even if they
reported nobody cares to listen to them and may also experience other forms of harassments. It is
essential for employers to come up with rules to make sure there is gender equality and that
workers of a specific gender are not harassing the other in any way. Employers should also try
observing the behaviors of the employees, and if they notice any form of unusual behavior or
stress, they should investigate the cause so as to help those employees who are shy to talk about
their experiences (Wallis 2019).
In case you fall a victim of sexual harassment accusations, you should take the matter
with a lot of seriousness and take time to understand the allegations properly. You are entitled to
be issued with a copy of the report, being educated on your rights and process to be followed
during investigation and disciplinary, the issue should remain confidential (that is only the
people involved in the process know about it), be informed of the consequences that are
applicable and being briefed on how you should behave in future to matters concerning
harassment. You can also be moved to another department, be requested to take a leave or
suspended until all the investigations are carried out. You should also consider the feelings of the
person complaining as well as their way of thinking. You should have a different support person
to make sure there is no conflict-of-interest (Scarduzio, Sheff, & Smith 2018)
Every year, there is an increase in sexual harassment globally, it is therefore vital for
organizations to lay the right strategies to fight this bad behavior and to make the business
environment better in future. Doctors, on the other hand, have a role of helping the victims
recover from any psychological issues that may have raised after the harassment, they must also

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examine the victim to find out if they contacted any sexually transmitted disease and treat them
in good time. They should also advise and give moral support to avoid low self-esteem and
depression, and the victim needs to be handled with care and love to avoid more emotional
damage (Mollayeva, Mollayeva, Lewko & Colantonio. 2016).
Counselors and psychologist also have a part in sexual harassment management. They
need to counsel the victim, examine psychological issues that may be affecting the victim, try
finding out the reason for sexual abuse and warn/counsel the facilitators. They should also help
the victim to relieve stress, so that is wont cause anxiety or depression or other mental problems
in the future. Counselors’ help victims accept what has happened and find a way to leave with it
as well as protecting themselves in the future. A psychologist helps the victims recover from
depression or mental problems caused by terrible happenings that the victims have experienced.
Conclusion and recommendations
In conclusion, sexual harassment is so common nowadays; it may lead to victims
experiencing mental problems, diseases, and financial issues. Most of the victims are women,
and most of them are shy to talk about their experiences in sexual harassments. They are
encouraged to speak to people they trust or counselors to seek help, sexually abused workers are
less active as they cannot work correctly, they should report to their employers, who in turn must
protect the employees from any and punish the harassers. Employers should be fair when dealing
with such issues and should only make decisions after well investigating and acquiring all the
necessary information. In cases where the harassment has caused too much damage the victim
should have a psychologist to help in the healing process and finding out the cause of
harassment. When one falls a victim of being accused of sexual harassment, one should carefully

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understand the accusations and seek for a personal assistant. One should also find to properly
understand their rights as well as the process of investigation.

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References
Ali, S. R. O., Zakaria, Z., Zahari, A. S. M., Said, N. S. M., & Salleh, S. M. (2015). The Effects of
Sexual Harassment in Workplace: Experience of Employees in Hospitality Industry in
Terengganu, Malaysia. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(4), 689.
Arief, H. H. (2017). Sexual Harassment: Legal Protection Againts Workers in Malaysia. Al Adl:
Jurnal Hukum, 9(1), 135-142.
Mollayeva, T., Mollayeva, S., Lewko, J., & Colantonio, A. (2016). Sex differences in work-
related traumatic brain injury due to assault. Work, 54(2), 415-423.
Wallis, E. (2019). Immigrant Female Farmworkers in California Need Greater Protection
Against Sexual Harrasment.
Bendixen, M., Daveronis, J., & Kennair, L. E. O. (2018). The effects of non-physical peer sexual
harassment on high school students’ psychological well-being in Norway: consistent and stable
findings across studies. International journal of public health, 63(1), 3-11.
Farhat, M. (2017). Gender based Harassement.
Scarduzio, J. A., Sheff, S. E., & Smith, M. (2018). Coping and sexual harassment: How victims
cope across multiple settings. Archives of sexual behavior, 47(2), 327-340.
Henry, N., & Powell, A. (2015). Beyond the ‘sext’: Technology-facilitated sexual violence and
harassment against adult women. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 48(1), 104-
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McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., & Blackstone, A. (2017). The economic and career effects of sexual
harassment on working women. Gender & Society, 31(3), 333-358.
Hom, M. A., Stanley, I. H., Spencer-Thomas, S., & Joiner, T. E. (2017). Women firefighters and
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