The untold story of witnesses of workplace harassment | Julia Shaw | TEDxLondonWomen
Summary
TLDRDr. Julia Shaw, a research associate at UCL and co-founder of 'spot', discusses the subtle yet impactful role of 'accidental activists' in combating workplace harassment and discrimination. She emphasizes the importance of witnessing and acting on inappropriate behavior, citing a study revealing that 93% of victims had at least one witness. Shaw offers practical steps organizations can take to support witnesses and victims, including leadership commitment, manager training, anonymous reporting, and fostering a shared social identity to create a healthier and more inclusive workplace.
Takeaways
- 😶 Workplace harassment and discrimination often occur in subtle ways, not just through marches or public campaigns, and can be addressed by individuals in everyday situations.
- 👥 Being an 'accidental activist' means taking action in response to witnessing inappropriate behavior at work, such as a colleague making offensive comments or unwanted advances.
- 🔍 Dr. Julia Shaw, a research associate at UCL and co-founder of 'spot', emphasizes the importance of better reporting options and training to tackle workplace issues.
- 📊 A large-scale study conducted by Dr. Shaw and others found that 93% of harassment victims reported at least one witness, indicating that most incidents are not isolated.
- 🤔 The 'bystander effect' is a psychological barrier that prevents people from intervening in witnessed harassment, often due to fear of consequences or not wanting to interfere.
- 🚫 Fear of retaliation is the primary reason why both victims and witnesses hesitate to report incidents, highlighting the need for anonymous reporting options.
- 🛡️ Organizations need to showcase their commitment to diversity and inclusion, with leadership setting the tone for a culture that does not tolerate harassment or discrimination.
- 👩🏫 Training for managers is crucial, as they are often the ones who may engage in inappropriate behavior due to a lack of people skills or management training.
- 📝 Providing options for anonymous reporting and the ability to choose who to report to can help overcome the fear of consequences and encourage more people to come forward.
- 🔄 Actively seeking feedback through surveys and asking about specific incidents can help organizations identify and address issues that might otherwise go unreported.
- 🌐 Building a shared social identity within an organization can mitigate the bystander effect, fostering a sense of collective responsibility and support for one another.
Q & A
What is the main focus of Dr. Julia Shaw's activism?
-Dr. Julia Shaw's activism focuses on tackling workplace harassment and discrimination, particularly through the use of the tool 'spot' which helps organizations with better reporting options and training.
What was the purpose of the study conducted by Dr. Shaw and her colleagues in 2019?
-The study aimed to understand the experiences of witnesses of harassment and discrimination at work, which was one of the largest studies ever conducted on this topic.
Why did Dr. Shaw feel reporting paralysis when she was victimized?
-Dr. Shaw experienced reporting paralysis due to her fear of the consequences for her career and concerns that she would not be believed or taken seriously.
What cultural shift has been observed in recent years regarding the reporting of harassment and discrimination?
-There has been a cultural awakening where stories of sexual abuse, harassment, and discrimination in the workplace are being heard and understood better, leading to fewer instances of reporting paralysis.
What percentage of victims reported that there was at least one witness to their harassment or discrimination?
-93% of victims reported that there was at least one witness to their experiences of harassment or discrimination.
What is the 'bystander effect' and why does it occur?
-The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon where individuals do not intervene in an emergency situation when other people are present. It occurs due to a diffusion of responsibility and the assumption that others will take action.
What are the main barriers that prevent witnesses from reporting incidents of harassment or discrimination?
-The main barriers include fear of consequences or retaliation, not wanting to interfere or be seen as a 'snitch', and a lack of knowledge about how or whether they can report.
How do witnessing harassment or discrimination impact the witnesses themselves?
-Witnessing harassment or discrimination can lead to increased stress, anxiety, depression, and a desire to leave the organization, affecting their well-being and job satisfaction.
What is the significance of the social contagion effect mentioned in the script?
-The social contagion effect refers to the spread of negative consequences and discontent among people when they share stories of harassment or discrimination, which can threaten an organization's ability to retain and attract diverse talent.
What are some actionable steps organizations can take to support witnesses and victims of harassment or discrimination?
-Organizations can showcase commitment to diversity and inclusion, train managers to handle such issues, allow anonymous reporting, provide choices about who to report to, encourage witness reporting, conduct surveys to identify specific incidents, and build a shared social identity among employees.
Outlines
😐 Workplace Activism Beyond the Spotlight
Dr. Julia Shaw introduces the concept of subtle activism in the workplace, emphasizing that change often occurs in small, everyday moments rather than through grand gestures. She discusses the role of witnesses in incidents of harassment and discrimination, and how they can become 'accidental activists'. Shaw is a research associate at UCL and co-founder of 'spot', a tool designed to improve reporting and training in organizations. She recounts her personal experience of workplace harassment and the common 'reporting paralysis' that prevents individuals from speaking up due to fear of career repercussions. The cultural awakening to sexual abuse and harassment stories has led to a better understanding of victims' experiences, yet the perspective of witnesses remains largely untold. The prevalence of witnessed harassment is highlighted, with a statistic that 93% of victims reported at least one witness, indicating that such behavior is rarely hidden.
🤔 The Bystander Effect and Its Psychological Barriers
This paragraph delves into the psychology of being a witness to harassment or discrimination. Despite most people believing they would intervene in hypothetical scenarios, the reality often differs due to the 'bystander effect'. The main barrier to reporting, as cited by 75% of participants in Shaw's research, is the fear of consequences or retaliation. Other reasons include not wanting to interfere or a lack of knowledge about reporting procedures. The paragraph also addresses the lack of support for witnesses, who, like victims, can experience negative repercussions such as increased stress, anxiety, and depression. The social contagion effect is discussed, where the negative consequences of harassment spread as witnesses share their experiences, potentially impacting an organization's ability to retain and attract talent. Shaw suggests that organizations can take steps to reduce barriers and provide support for both witnesses and victims, emphasizing the importance of allyship in creating healthier workplaces.
🛡 Strategies for Fostering a Supportive Workplace Culture
The final paragraph outlines five strategies organizations can implement to tackle harassment and discrimination. These include showcasing leadership commitment to diversity and inclusion, training managers to handle harassment and discrimination, providing anonymous reporting options, encouraging witness reporting, conducting surveys to identify specific incidents, and building a shared social identity among employees. Shaw stresses the importance of proactive measures rather than reactive ones, highlighting the need for a cohesive unit where employees feel supported and empowered to stand up against negative behaviors. She concludes with a call to action for individuals to become 'accidental activists' by speaking up when they witness inappropriate behavior, thereby fostering a stronger, healthier, and more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Activism
💡Workplace harassment
💡Discrimination
💡Reporting paralysis
💡Bystanders
💡Active bystanders
💡Bystander effect
💡Anonymous reporting
💡Social contagion
💡Organizational culture
💡Active allies
Highlights
Not all activism involves marches and opinion pieces; subtle actions in the workplace can also make a difference.
Small moments at work, such as witnessing inappropriate comments or unwanted advances, can be opportunities for individuals to become 'accidental activists'.
Dr. Julia Shaw is a research associate at University College London and co-founder of 'spot', a tool to tackle harassment and discrimination in organizations.
In 2019, Shaw and colleagues conducted one of the largest studies on workplace harassment and discrimination witnesses, revealing the extent of the issue.
93% of victims reported that there was at least one witness to their harassment or discrimination, indicating that these incidents often occur in the open.
The concept of 'reporting paralysis' is discussed, where individuals are hesitant to report incidents due to fear of career consequences.
Cultural awakening has led to increased awareness and understanding of victim experiences in sexual abuse and harassment cases.
The story of the witness in harassment and discrimination cases has remained largely untold, despite their importance.
Witnesses face similar barriers as victims, such as fear of consequences or retaliation, when deciding whether to report incidents.
The bystander effect is prevalent, with many people choosing not to intervene in witnessed harassment or discrimination.
Witnesses to harassment and discrimination often go unsupported, experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression as a result.
Social contagion occurs as witnesses share their experiences, leading to increased discontent and potential organizational issues.
Organizations can take steps to support witnesses and victims, such as showcasing commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Training managers is crucial as they are often the ones who may engage in harassment or discrimination.
Allowing anonymous reporting can help reduce the fear of consequences for both victims and witnesses.
Encouraging witness reporting and providing choices about who to report to can improve organizational response to incidents.
Conducting surveys to proactively ask employees about their experiences can help identify and address issues within the organization.
Building a shared social identity within an organization can help mitigate the bystander effect and foster a supportive environment.
Positive changes in legislation, attitudes, and organizational practices are leading to a decline in harassment and discrimination.
Active allies play a critical role in creating healthier and more inclusive workplaces, and individuals can become accidental activists by speaking up.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
not all activism involves marches and
opinion pieces and not all change to
tackle workplace harassment and
discrimination needs to be part of a
political campaign most is much more
subtle it's likely that for most of us
we will experience small moments at work
where we can make a big difference
perhaps we over here a colleague make an
inappropriate comment about a co-worker
who is an immigrant or we attend an
event which excludes people who don't
drink or perhaps we see someone make
repeated unwanted sexual advances it's
in these moments where we become
witnesses that we can choose to either
do nothing or do something it can turn
this into accidental activists I'm dr.
Julia Shaw a research associate at
University College London and the
co-founder of spot spot is a tool that
helps organizations tackle harassment
and discrimination with better reporting
options and better training and in 2019
along with dr. Camilla elphic and dr.
reidman ass and a number of
international NGOs and charities we
conducted one of the largest studies
ever on witnesses of harassment and
discrimination at work
why witnesses the first time that I was
victimized and became the target of
inappropriate workplace behavior
I hadn't even left University a couple
of academics who were far more senior
than me repeatedly and relentlessly
targeted me and every time something
happens I wished that someone would
speak up that they would tell me that
I'm not overreacting that I'm saying
that there's something that we could do
but instead I found myself with
reporting paralysis I didn't speak up
and neither did most other people why
didn't I just speak up well I was
worried about the consequences for my
career because I loved my work I was
also worried about things that many
people see as barriers like not being
believed
are taken seriously like my situation
resulting in no change
luckily over the past couple of years
we've seen that reporting paralysis is
affecting fewer people and some people
are able to now have voices to before
we're voiceless in fact you could argue
that we have had a cultural awakening
where we've heard finally for the first
time stories of sexual abuse the
workplace we've heard stories of
harassment and discrimination and we
understand the victim experience so much
better unfortunately while this is an
important step so far the story of the
witness has remained almost entirely
untold and so I would like to tell that
story first how much harassment is
actually witnessed when the Harvey
Weinstein scandal first broke one of his
colleagues Scott Rosenberg wrote a
searing critique on social media
regarding Hollywood's systemic failure
to safeguard young woman what he wrote
at the end of each paragraph was
everybody effing knew everybody
effing knew this idea that everybody
already knows about the harassment or
discrimination that's happening at our
workplace isn't just true of Weinstein
or Hollywood but turns out it's true for
most industries when we first started
spot we allowed people to submit
statements about experiencing harassment
or discrimination to talk to spot.com
and as researchers we looked at these
stories and we were shocked when we
found that 93% of victims reported that
there was at least one witness these
things that aren't happening behind
closed doors
further research has since come out
which has further repeated this idea
that most harassment and discrimination
is witnessed and so how do we mobilize
these witnesses first let's talk about
the psychology of being a witness in
2018 two women were at a Starbucks when
they watched a barista deny access to a
washroom to two african-american men
instead the barista called the police
the two active bystanders took a video
of the
and handcuffs and posted it online this
act of bystanding had an almost
immediate positive effect
Starbucks closed a number of its doors
and implemented bias training most of us
think that we would be these active
bystanders that we would be these kinds
of heroes in fact in research on this
when researchers give people
hypothetical scenarios and ask if they
would intervene most of us of course yes
of course
of course I would stand up but even when
those same researchers present an actual
physical situation where someone needs
to actually intervene most people do
nothing and they fell prey to the
well-known bystander effect why and what
are the barriers that people are facing
in our research three-quarters of people
who we had interviewed and who we had
participate in our study which was over
a thousand participants three-quarters
of them said that they never reported
the incident to HR they never reported
the incident to someone who could do
something about it and the barriers that
they cited the number one barrier was
actually the exact same as the main
barrier that victims report which is the
fear of consequences or retaliation even
witnesses are worried about what might
happen to them and their careers other
reasons that people reported was not
wanting to interfere or not wanting to
be a snitch not knowing they could
report or not knowing how all of these
things can be targeted with better
education and better systems and
workplaces but the story of the witness
isn't complete without also talking
about the consequences for the witnesses
themselves if you were to see someone
who had just witnessed a crime being
committed on the street you would almost
certainly go up to that witness and say
are you ok do you need some support you
might even offer them counselling or
therapy to process what they just saw
but witnesses at work are largely
invisible and of course so is support
for them and some of this invisibility
might even be internalized when we asked
our participants about reporting and
when we asked them about the negative
concept
Pence's for them we found that most
people said when asked directly did
witnessing this experience have a
negative repercussion most people said
no I'm fine but when we looked at the
qualitative entries when we looked at
what people actually wrote about this
experience we found that these
experience have profoundly negative
impacts they increase stress and anxiety
and depression they increase the
prevalence of desire to leave the
organization loss of faith why is there
this discrepancy it seems that we're
doing a comparative evaluation compared
to the victim not nothing really
happened to me but that's not really the
right question and support shouldn't be
invisible just because you're less
affected because we're all affected and
we should all be supporting each other
we also found evidence of a social
contagion while 23% of participants told
HR more 46 percent told colleagues
usually someone on their team and 67
percent told someone outside of work
what this shows is that the negative
consequences of the situation where
someone is harassed or discriminated
against go far beyond the room people
take that story with them and that
discontent grows as they tell more and
more people and this has the real effect
that is almost certainly threatening
your ability as an organization to
retain and attract diverse and excellent
candidates so what do we do to stop the
social contagion what do we do to reduce
these barriers and how do we provide
support for witnesses and victims how
can we be better allies and it's easier
than you might think in my research I've
come across five particular things that
I think every organization can and
should do to help tackle this issue and
to build healthier workplaces first
showcase your commitment if your
leadership isn't repeatedly saying how
important diversity and inclusion is to
them ends living by example no one is
going to believe you and the HR driven
campaign is
efficient your organization is a direct
mirror of its leadership team and they
need to be setting the tone second
trainer managers the main person who is
likely to harass someone in your
organization is a manager now why
perhaps because power corrupts or
perhaps because we promote people on to
managerial roles because they're
excellent at their jobs and we assume
that they will pick up the people skills
pick up the management skills along the
way but then they don't and this
provides a fertile ground for harassment
and discrimination with unrealistic
expectations with poor time management
with poor conflict management skills
trainer managers third we know from
research on victims that without the
ability to report anonymously the fear
of consequences is so overwhelming that
most people will never report incidents
we found the same was true for witnesses
when we asked them directly in our study
whether organizations could do something
to improve the fact that they might
report they said number one that they
could do better was allowing for witness
anonymity second was providing choices
about who to report to perhaps
shockingly although managers are the
most likely person to be perpetrating
harassment or discrimination in many
organizations they're also supposed to
be your first point of contact when
things go wrong now that's a major
sticking point so being able to choose
who you go to is crucial
third encouraging witness reporting back
to setting a tone in your organization
saying you can and should report things
and you can help stand up for each other
force even when you have all of this in
place most people will not speak to HR
we know this because it's spot we
thought anonymity would solve everything
it did not anonymity is one piece of the
puzzle conducting surveys means that you
go out to your employees you don't wait
for them to come to you and you ask
everybody about how they feel about the
health of I inclusion and diversity
efforts within the organization and be
specific ask people about specific
incidents or specific things they've
witnessed because just like in our
survey if you ask people directly if
they've experienced harassment or
discriminate
the default answer is no but if you ask
about specific experiences or specific
behaviors most people go oh yeah I saw
that the other week so making sure you
ask the right questions is crucial
finally and most importantly research
shows that one of the best ways to
mitigate the bystander effect is to
build a shared social identity it's not
about policing each other it's not about
calling each other out it's about being
a cohesive unit we are in this together
if you attack one of us you're attacking
all of us because wouldn't you want that
wouldn't you want someone to stand by
you if something negative happens we're
all hopefully collectively building an
organization that is stronger and
healthier and more diverse and inclusive
without my allies I wouldn't be here
when I was first targeted with
inappropriate behavior at work I fell
into a depression and I almost left
academia altogether without a few people
who stood by me I wouldn't be on this
stage right now and I wish I had a happy
ending for you but unfortunately these
individuals are still at it you see in
organizational structures where
colleagues work in dispersed way is
where it's difficult to know who even to
report to nevermind what the
consequences might be these kinds of
behaviors are most likely to flourish
for longer but that doesn't stop me from
trying to stop it and I can tell you one
thing that over the past couple of years
of my research I have found that there
have been so many positive changes
changes in legislation changes and
attitudes and organizations are finally
taking these issues seriously I swear
the time of the harasser z' and the
bullies and the discriminators is coming
to an end
the structure is that once allowed these
kinds of behaviors to flourish are
finally being dismantled so all the
active allies already out there thank
you you make all the difference and to
the rest of us next time we see
something negative happen at work speak
up tell the
person whose effective that you
understood that you saw that too and
that you can help them become an
accidental activist and be the active
witness that you wish others would be
for you thank you
[Applause]
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