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Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual behaviour, which could be expected to make a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. Sexual harassment can be physical, verbal or written. It can include:

• Comments about a person’s private life or the way they look
• Sexually suggestive behaviour, such as leering or staring
• Brushing up against someone, touching, fondling or hugging
• Sexually suggestive comments or jokes
• Displaying offensive screen savers, photos, calendars or objects
• Repeated requests to go out
• requests for sex
• Sexually explicit emails, text messages or posts on social networking sites
• Sexual assault
• Indecent exposure
• Inappropriate touching such as patting, pinching, or brushing up against the body
• Cornering, invading personal space
• Attempted or actual kissing, fondling, rape
• Blocking a passageway

TYPES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

• QUID PRO QUO meaning “this for that” in Latin,

Quid pro quo sexual harassment is when an individual, typically a supervisor, ask or hints at sexual favors in exchange for employment benefit

Some of these benefits may Include:

• Wage increases (raises)
• A larger or newer office or cubicle
• Promotion
• Travel opportunities
• More desirable shifts
• Job retention

Another type of quid pro quo sexual harassment deals with the repercussions of declining the supervisor’s advances. This may include:

• Termination
• Threats
• Demotion
• Less desirable work assignments
• Unsatisfactory shifts

Because of these negative consequences, the harasser uses their position of power to intimidate or coerce the other party into submission.

• HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Hostile work environment sexual harassment consists of repeated sexual advances, gestures, jokes, or other comments that prevent an employee from working without intimidation or threat.

• Some examples of this type of harassment may include:
• Incessant or repetitious telling of sexual or dirty anecdotes or jokes
• Cartoons, images, icons, pictures, and even dolls or statues with a sexual undertone or of a sexual nature
• Insulting or using derogatory sexual terms toward another person
• Writing emails, memos, or other correspondence that includes sexual innuendos or other material
• Repeated, sexually oriented behavior such as touching, rubbing, or groping that’s done without the permission of the other party

Remember that harassers can be managers, supervisors, co-workers or 3rd parties, such as clients or vendors while victims can be anyone who is offended by the offensive behaviour, therefore to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, the following strategies can be adopted:

• Limit physical contact to handshakes.
• Be careful of what you email or what you display on your computer.
• Don’t be afraid to come forward & report the harassment
• Implement a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment and encourage employees to come forward to report misconduct

Workplace safety refers to policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety and health of employees within a workplace. It involves hazard identification and control according to government standards and ongoing safety training and education for employees.

CATEGORY OF HAZARDS IN THE WORKPLACE

SAFETY HAZARDS

Safety Hazards are unsafe working conditions that that can cause injury, illness and death. These are the most common workplace hazards. They include

• Anything that can cause spills or tripping such as cords running across the floor or ice
• Anything that can cause falls such as working from heights, including ladders, scaffolds, roofs, or any raised work area
• Unguarded machinery and moving machinery parts that a worker can accidentally touch
• Electrical hazards like frayed cords, missing ground pins, improper wiring
• Confined spaces

PHYSICAL HAZARD

Physical hazards can be any factors within the environment that can harm the body without necessarily touching it. They include:

• Radiation: including ionizing, non-ionizing (EMF’s, microwaves, radiowaves, etc.)
• High exposure to sunlight / ultraviolet rays
• Temperature extremes – hot and cold
• Constant loud noise

ERGONOMIC HAZARDS

• This occurs when the type of work, body positions and working conditions put a strain on the body.
• They are the hardest to spot since you don’t always immediately notice the strain on your body or the harm that these hazards pose.
• Short-term exposure may result in “sore muscles” the next day or in the days following the exposure, but long term exposure can result in serious long-term illness.

They include;

• Improperly adjusted workstations and chairs
• Frequent lifting
• Poor posture
• Awkward movements, especially if they are repetitive
• Having to use too much force, especially if you have to do it frequently

WORK ORGANIZATION HAZARDS

These are hazards or stressors that cause stress (short term effects) and strain (long term effects).  These are hazards associated with workplace issues such as workload, lack of control and/or respect, etc. Examples include:

• Workload demands
• Workplace violence
• Intensity and/or pace
• Respect (or lack thereof)
• Flexibility
• Control or say about things
• Social support or relations
• Sexual harassment

 Email etiquette or netiquette refers to the principles of behavior that one should use when writing or answering email messages

Some basic email etiquette you need to observe include;

• A clear and direct subject line.
  • Examples of a good subject line include “Meeting date changed,” “Quick question about your presentation,” or “Suggestions for the proposal.”
  • People often decide whether to open an email based on the subject line.
• Use a professional email address.
  • Always use your company email address. But if you use a personal email account–whether you are self-employed or just like using it occasionally for work-related correspondences —you should be careful when choosing that address
• Include a signature block.
  • Provide your reader with some information about you. You also can add a little publicity for yourself, but don’t go overboard with any sayings or artwork.”
  • Use the same font, type size, and color as the rest of the email

• Use professional salutations.
  • Don’t use laid-back, colloquial expressions like, “Hey you guys,” “Yo,” or “Hi folks.”
  • The relaxed nature of our writings should not affect the salutation in an email.
  • Hey is a very informal salutation and generally it should not be used in the workplace. And Yo is not okay either. Use Hi or Hello
• Always reply to your emails–even if the email wasn’t intended for you.
  • It’s difficult to reply to every email message ever sent to you, but you should try to.
  • A reply isn’t necessary but serves as good email etiquette, especially if this person works in the same company or industry as you.
• Add the email address last.
  • “You don’t want to send an email accidentally before you have finished writing and proofing the message.
• Double-check that you’ve selected the correct recipient.
  • Pay careful attention when typing a name from your address book on the email’s “To” line. “It’s easy to select the wrong name, which can be embarrassing to you and to the person who receives the email by mistake.”
• Keep your fonts classic.
  • For business correspondence, keep your fonts, colors, and sizes classic.
  • The cardinal rule: Your emails should be easy for other people to read.
  • Generally, it is best to use 10- or 12- point type and an easy-to-read font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman.
  • As for color, black is the safest choice.
• Keep tabs on your tone.
  • Tone is easy to misread without the context you’d get from vocal cues and facial expressions.
  • Accordingly, it’s easy to come off as more abrupt that you might have intended –you meant “straightforward,” they read “angry and curt.”
  • To avoid misunderstandings, read your message out loud before hitting send. “If it sounds hard to you, it will sound hard to the reader.
  • For best results, avoid using negative words (“failure,” “wrong,” or “neglected”), and always say “please” and “thank you.”

Civility is defined as behaviors that show respect toward another person, makes them feel appreciated, contributes to mutual respect, effective communication and team collaboration.

Ways to show civility include courtesy, politeness, and a general awareness of the rights, wishes, concern and feelings of others.

Civility demands that one speaks in ways that are respectful, responsible, mild and decent and avoid that which is offensive, rude, degrading and threatening.

Uncivil behavior includes;

• Failure to acknowledge another person’s presence
• Using abusive languages
• Gossiping
• Bullying and threatening co-workers
• Destroying individuals and company efforts
• Discriminating against a particular individual or group
• Disregard to co-workers needs

The costs of incivility are important and it includes

• Decreased creativity
• Decreased morale
• Client hatred

 REASONS FOR INCIVILITY

• Low employee morale
  • If employees are not happy with their jobs or feel that their work is going unappreciated, they are more likely to show signs of stress and hatred towards others
• Workplace stress
  • Stress in the workplace is another large contributor to incivility.
  • looming deadlines, project failures, long work days or long stretches without time off can wear on an employee and as a result, they may display rude behavior both to their fellow workers as well as customers.
• Bad employee
  • There are people who are simply rude. They may not have learned coping skills as young adults, and they may have issues with getting along with others

WAYS TO REDUCE INCIVILITY IN WORKPLACE

• Examine your own behavior and how you contribute to civility or incivility
• Don’t listen to or tolerate rumors and gossip
• Encourage employee not to jump to conclusions about the intent or motives of other employee
• Stop the blame game and encourage a solution orientation to problems
• Encourage acts of kindness among employee
• Go out of your way to say thank you and promote this behavior in employees
• Look for common ground in dealing with conflict
• Encourage the practice of forgiveness