Workplace harassment is a serious risk to both companies and employees. Victims can suffer real mental health harm, and a toxic work culture can create reputational and legal problems for a company.
Bystander intervention can be a major tool for preventing workplace harassment and toxic workplaces. By showing employees how to speak up and making sure they’re supported when they do, employers can create a healthier, happier, and more productive environment for all employees. Joseph & Norinsberg is proud to offer employers and employees more information about bystander intervention in the workplace.
What Is Bystander Intervention in the Workplace?
Bystander intervention occurs when someone who witnesses or observes harassment, discrimination, or other misconduct assists the victim in some way to influence the outcome. A bystander can help a victim in the following ways:
- Speaking up in the moment and directly confronting a harasser in the workplace
- Reporting harassment to someone with more authority
- Checking in with someone who has been harassed and ensuring they receive support
Intervention strategies can be used against sexual harassment, racial discrimination, verbal bullying, and even sexual assault. Though the circumstances may change, the techniques don’t.
These strategies aren’t limited to supervisors and HR, either. Any employee can learn to intervene when they witness harassment or mistreatment. In some situations, a co-worker’s comment may carry more weight than a supervisor’s.
How Does Bystander Intervention Improve a Company’s Culture?
Workplace harassment is more than just unkind words. Victims of long-term harassment can suffer from depression and anxiety as well as physical problems like sleep disturbances and increased blood pressure. With 30 percent of employees reporting they have experienced abuse, it’s hard to underestimate the scope of the problem.
Workplaces in which harassment occurs can suffer, too. The direct legal costs to a company can be large, but the indirect costs of lowered productivity, increased employee turnover, and reputational damage can be even greater.
Bystander intervention validates the experience of the harassment victim and lets them know that others in the workplace are looking out for them. In cases of violence or sexual assault, bystander intervention can even protect the victim from physical harm.
While companies may not be able to prevent every instance of harassment, they can create a culture where employees feel comfortable speaking up, both as victims and bystanders.
How Can Employers Educate Their Employees on Bystander Intervention?
Studies have shown that bystander intervention training can help participants better identify harassment, understand its effects, and feel comfortable intervening when they see it happening. Training can take multiple forms, including webinars, in-house discussions, and sessions with a live trainer. New York State offers free training videos on sexual harassment and template harassment policies.
Training programs need to go beyond watching videos, though. Hands-on training, where employees role-play harassment situations, may be more beneficial. Training should also be supported by institutional buy-in and strong policies for disciplining harassment.
Legal Requirements
This training needs to cover the workplace’s complaint process for sexual harassment, workers’ rights against retaliation, and the responsibilities of supervisors and managers.
If an employer in New York City doesn’t provide sexual harassment training, employees have the right to report their employer to the NYC Commission on Human Rights.
What Are the Strategies for Bystander Intervention in the Workplace?
Follow these tips to intervene when you witness harassment in the workplace.
Support
You may not feel comfortable intervening as harassment is happening. Perhaps the harasser has a supervisory role, or you worry you’ll worsen the situation. That’s where the support strategy comes in.
This strategy involves providing comfort and emotional support to the victim and letting them know they have an ally who also agrees the harassment was out of line. It can also mean offering to support a complaint to HR or letting them know about workplace resources.
Direct Intervention
If you feel comfortable doing so, addressing someone directly can shut down harassment quickly and let other bystanders know there is an ally in the workplace. It’s best to keep your words short and to the point—engaging in a debate takes your attention away from the victim and may escalate the situation.
Only engage in direct intervention if you feel safe doing so. If you’re concerned for your physical safety or worried you may escalate the situation, it’s best to use another strategy.
Documenting the Instance
Documenting a situation by using your phone to make a recording or writing down notes can help the harassment victim if they submit a complaint or consult with a lawyer. However, documentation should never get in the way of more direct methods of helping a harassment victim.
Be sure to let the victim know you have documentation about the incident. Don’t show the information to others or post it online without the victim’s express consent.
Delegating the Intervention
The power dynamics of a workplace may make intervention difficult at the time, so letting someone with more authority know about the harassment can be a helpful strategy. If your supervisor has been good about shutting down harassment in the past, you may want to let them know.
On the other hand, if you see someone in a supervisory role doing the harassment, you may feel more comfortable going to HR. Delegation works best in a workplace that treats harassment with urgency and takes meaningful action to help the victim.
Distracting the Harasser
Distraction or interruption can be an indirect way to shut down harassment in the moment. For instance, if you witness harassment in the hallway, you might interrupt the interaction and say you need to talk to the victim about an urgent work matter. Then, once you’re away from the harasser, you can check that the victim is okay.
What Are the Obstacles to Bystander Intervention in the Workplace?
A common obstacle preventing bystander intervention is fear of retribution, especially if the harasser is in a position of authority or has more social capital. Another obstacle is apathy, in which bystanders who could potentially intervene may feel their intervention won’t help or that it’s not worth the conflict.
Good bystander intervention training can let employees know that intervention makes a difference and empower them to speak up. However, changing a culture takes time, and good training requires a serious investment of company resources.
Bystander intervention training shouldn’t merely be treated as a box to check. It must be part of a holistic organizational commitment to stopping workplace harassment.
Contact Joseph & Norinsberg for Your Employment Law Cases
Workplace harassment is never okay. If you’ve been a victim, don’t suffer in silence. Joseph & Norinsberg can help you better understand your legal options. Contact us online or call 212-227-5700 today for a free consultation.
