Advice

How to Address Sexual Harassment at Work: A No-Nonsense Guide from Someone Who's Seen It All

The moment I heard Dave from accounting tell Sarah she looked "nice enough to eat" during the morning tea last month, I knew we had a problem. Not just Dave being a dickhead – though that was definitely part of it – but the fact that three other people heard it and nobody said anything. Including me, initially.

That's the thing about sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. It's not always the dramatic, obvious stuff you see in movies. Most of the time, it's the "harmless" comments, the lingering hugs, the jokes that make people uncomfortable but aren't quite bad enough to report. Yet.

After 18 years of working in corporate training and seeing more workplace disasters than I care to count, I've learned that addressing sexual harassment isn't just about having the right policies. It's about creating a culture where people actually feel safe speaking up. And mate, that's harder than it sounds.

The Real Problem Nobody Talks About

Here's what I've noticed: most companies think they've solved harassment by hanging a poster in the break room and sending everyone to a boring two-hour training session once a year. Wrong.

The real issue is that 67% of harassment incidents never get reported because people don't trust the system will protect them. I've seen brilliant employees leave good jobs because they couldn't handle the "boys club" mentality or the constant inappropriate comments that management dismissed as "just banter."

Sarah, by the way, didn't report Dave. She transferred departments instead.

Now, I'm not saying we need to bubble-wrap everyone or ban office relationships. That's ridiculous. But there's a massive difference between genuine workplace friendship and behaviour that makes people dread coming to work. The key is teaching people to recognise that difference.

What Actually Works (And What Doesn't)

Traditional harassment awareness training focuses too much on worst-case scenarios and not enough on everyday boundaries. You know what I mean – they show you a video of some bloke literally groping someone, and everyone thinks "well, I'd never do THAT" and switches off.

But harassment isn't just physical assault. It's the constant comments about appearance. The "jokes" about someone's sexuality. The exclusion from important conversations because someone thinks a topic is "too adult" for certain team members.

Here's what I've found actually works:

Regular check-ins, not just annual surveys. People need multiple opportunities to raise concerns, and they need to trust that speaking up won't backfire on them. I once worked with a company in Brisbane where the CEO personally met with every employee quarterly. Not about performance – just to chat. Harassment reports dropped by 40% in the first year because people felt heard.

Clear consequences that actually happen. Too many organisations have beautiful policies that never get enforced. When someone crosses the line, there needs to be real action. Not just a "stern talking to" that everyone forgets about.

Training that focuses on bystander intervention. This is where most companies get it wrong. They spend all their time telling potential harassers not to harass (spoiler alert: the ones who need to hear it aren't listening anyway). Instead, train everyone else to recognise problematic behaviour and speak up safely.

I learned this the hard way when I failed to address Dave's comment immediately. Should've said something like "That's not appropriate, Dave" right then and there. Simple, direct, effective.

The Manager's Dilemma

If you're in management, you've probably had that horrible moment when someone comes to you with a harassment complaint and you have absolutely no idea what to do. Welcome to the club.

Here's the thing – you don't need to be a counsellor or a detective. Your job is to listen, document everything, and follow your company's procedures. But here's where it gets tricky: you also need to make sure the person feels supported throughout the process.

I've seen managers inadvertently make things worse by asking too many questions ("Are you sure it was harassment?" "Maybe he didn't mean it that way?") or by promising outcomes they can't deliver ("Don't worry, I'll make sure he's fired").

Better approach: Listen without judgment, thank them for speaking up, explain the process clearly, and check in regularly. That's it.

Creating Psychological Safety (The Buzzword That Actually Matters)

Psychological safety isn't just corporate jargon – it's the foundation of everything. People need to know they can speak up about inappropriate behaviour without becoming the office pariah or losing their job.

This means leadership needs to model appropriate behaviour consistently. Not just avoiding harassment themselves, but actively shutting down problematic comments and supporting people who speak up.

I remember working with a mining company where the site manager would publicly thank anyone who raised safety concerns, even if they turned out to be wrong. Same principle applies to harassment – reward the behaviour you want to see.

And here's an unpopular opinion: sometimes people need to be called out immediately, in front of others. Obviously not for serious allegations that require formal investigation, but for the everyday stuff that creates a toxic environment. When someone makes an inappropriate comment and everyone laughs awkwardly, that's the moment to say "Actually, that's not cool."

The Practical Stuff

Look, policies and procedures matter, but only if people actually understand them. Your harassment policy shouldn't read like a legal document that nobody can understand. Keep it simple:

What constitutes harassment (with specific examples)
How to report it (multiple options)
What happens next (realistic timelines)
Protection against retaliation (and what that actually means)

Most importantly, make sure people know that reporting harassment isn't a commitment to pursuing formal action. Sometimes people just want to talk through what happened and understand their options.

I've also found it helpful to have emotional intelligence training for managers. Not because harassment is an emotional intelligence issue, but because responding appropriately to complaints requires understanding how people feel and react under stress.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Prevention

Here's something that might ruffle some feathers: prevention is more about culture than training. You can send people to all the workshops you want, but if your workplace culture normalises inappropriate behaviour, nothing will change.

This means looking honestly at your organisation's social dynamics. Who gets promoted? What behaviour gets rewarded? What messages are you sending about what's acceptable?

I once consulted for a company where all the senior leadership were men who regularly went to strip clubs for "business meetings." Guess what kind of harassment problems they had? And guess how effective their harassment training was?

The solution isn't to police everyone's private lives, but to recognise that leadership behaviour sets the tone for everything else.

Technology and Modern Challenges

Social media has complicated everything. Now harassment can follow people home through LinkedIn messages, Facebook comments, or company chat platforms. Your policies need to address digital harassment, not just face-to-face interactions.

And remote work? Whole new set of challenges. Inappropriate comments during video calls, unwanted private messages, exclusion from virtual social events. The principles remain the same, but the applications are different.

Moving Forward

The reality is that addressing sexual harassment requires ongoing effort, not a one-time fix. It's about creating an environment where people feel respected and valued, where inappropriate behaviour is called out immediately, and where speaking up is seen as courageous rather than troublesome.

Dave, incidentally, eventually got moved to a different team after several more incidents. Not fired – which frustrated some people – but definitely sidelined. Sometimes that's how change happens: gradually, imperfectly, but consistently.

The goal isn't perfection. It's progress. And that starts with each of us being willing to speak up when we see something that's not right.

Because at the end of the day, everyone deserves to come to work without worrying about inappropriate comments, unwanted advances, or hostile environments. That shouldn't be a radical idea, but apparently it still is.

Time to change that.