Does staring qualify as sexual harassment at a workplace?

Amidst the #metoo movement taking a surge across the world, especially in the Indian Cine Industry, which is exposing all the corrupt employers who have asked for sexual favours in return for providing employment, corporate industries have been in the hindsight. I have been recently interacting with many of my female acquaintances, professionals and their colleagues working across various firms and across various geographies to find out how they feel about working in a corporate environment, in which sexual harassment is generally classified as a 'class A severity' punishable offence. A surprising, yet common response I received was that even though physical advances or direct sexist comments have been a less of an occurance, ogling at them for longer durations have been very common and frequent. Now, please note that I’m not here to take anyone's side, rather I want to be objective and bring to light and discuss the difficulties I have been told about and I have seen myself.

Many of us think that staring at people (be it any gender) for a long time is a natural human behaviour and there is nothing wrong in it. However, let me stop you here. Before you read my article further, I want you to read the document in the following link:

The United Nations, in the above document, clearly states what exactly sexual harassment means and what all activities fall under this category. If you have read the document carefully, you would have noticed that 'Staring at Someone' and 'Looking at a person up and down (Elevator eyes)' are clearly categorized under sexual harassment. I completely agree with the definition and the categorization given by The United Nations because staring with a lecherous or bad intent does create a painful situation in a workplace and most of the times spoils the work atmosphere. I have myself seen men staring at women for more than 5 seconds, making it too obvious, while traveling on elevators or when women are wearing formal attire or during business meetings and discussions. And with all honesty I am saying this, it does make the colleagues accompanying the women feel awkward about it as well.

Now coming back to the topic, as I mentioned before, my recent interaction with my acquaintances revealed that staring is a very common phenomenon at their workplaces and it makes them extremely uncomfortable. It creates a hostile environment for them to work in and thus forces them to become defensive, which in turn reduces their confidence and productivity. There are very few women out there, at present, who are strong enough to stand up for themselves and overcome all these hurdles in their work environment. Thus we need a better system to monitor such occurrences and take appropriate action. Few negative effects which I could gather from them, about having to work in such an environment are:

1.     Trust issues - Timid women tend to develop trust issues with their colleagues

2.     It leads to physical health issues because of stress

3.     Post –traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) are common

4.     It also often reduces self esteem of women

5.     They are forced to shift focus to job change or career change

After some analysis, I have come up with the following steps which can create and ensure a positive change in the work environment with respect to the issues discussed above:

1.     This issue happens primarily because of the ILLITERACY prevalent among the employees in terms of ETIQUETTES to be followed at a workplace. Thus, training and awareness programs should be conducted to explain what is right and what is wrong

2.     Encourage to build a work culture which focuses on EQUALITY for ALL the genders

3.     Build a strong, efficient and confidentiality focused OMBUDSMAN in organizations to report such happenings

Let us all take a step towards making our work environment a safe and an enjoyable place for everyone. Our responsibility starts now and all that we need to do now is educate our colleagues and friends about sexual harassment and its types. We need not wait for the formal trainings to be arranged or organized by our companies. Rather we can do our bit by just spreading a word about it or having a healthy discussion among our peer groups which will definitely go a long way in creating awareness about this sensitive issue.

You are welcome to provide me with feedbacks and pointers to discuss further on this topic!