How to support witnesses of harassment and build healthier workplaces | Julia Shaw

60,259 views ・ 2020-06-30

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Transcriber: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Krystian Aparta
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I'm Dr. Julia Shaw,
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a research associate at University College London,
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and the cofounder of Spot.
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Spot is a tool that helps organizations tackle harassment and discrimination
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with better reporting options and better training.
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And in 2019,
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along with Dr. Camilla Elphick and Dr. Rashid Minhas,
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and a number of international NGOs and charities,
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we conducted one of the largest studies ever
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on witnesses of harassment and discrimination at work.
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Why witnesses?
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The first time that I was victimized
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and became the target of inappropriate workplace behavior,
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I hadn't even left university.
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A couple of academics who were far more senior than me
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repeatedly and relentlessly targeted me.
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And every time something happened,
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I wished that someone would speak up.
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That they would tell me that I'm not overreacting,
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that I'm sane,
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that there's something that we could do.
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But instead,
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I found myself with reporting paralysis.
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I didn't speak up
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and neither did most other people.
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Why didn't I just speak up?
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Well, I was worried about the consequences for my career,
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because I loved my work.
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I was also worried about things that many people see as barriers,
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like not being believed or taken seriously,
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like my situation resulting in no change.
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Luckily, over the past couple of years,
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we've seen that reporting paralysis is affecting fewer people
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and some people are able to now have voices
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who before were voiceless.
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When we first started Spot,
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we allowed people to submit statements
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about experiencing harassment or discrimination
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to talktospot.com.
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And as researchers, we looked at these stories,
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and we were shocked when we found
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that 93 percent of victims reported that there was at least one witness.
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These things aren't happening behind closed doors.
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Further research has since come out
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which has further repeated this idea
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that most harassment and discrimination is witnessed.
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And so how do we mobilize these witnesses?
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First, let's talk about the psychology of being a witness.
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In 2018, two women were at a Starbucks
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when they watched a barista deny access to a washroom
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to two African American men.
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Instead, the barista called the police.
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The two active bystanders took a video of the men in handcuffs
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and posted it online.
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This active bystanding had an almost immediate positive effect.
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Starbucks closed a number of its doors and implemented bias training.
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Most of us think that we would be these active bystanders.
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That we would be these kinds of heroes.
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In fact, in research on this,
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when researchers give people hypothetical scenarios
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and ask if they would intervene,
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most of us say, "Yes, of course, of course I would stand up."
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But even when those same researchers
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present an actual physical situation where someone needs to actually intervene,
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most people do nothing.
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And they fall prey to the well-known bystander effect.
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Why?
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And what are the barriers that people are facing?
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In our research,
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three quarters of people who we had interviewed
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and who we had participate in our study --
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which was over 1,000 participants --
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three quarters of them said
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that they never reported the incident to HR,
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they never reported the incident
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to someone who could do something about it.
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And the barriers that they cited?
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The number one barrier was actually the exact same
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as the main barrier that victims report,
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which is the fear of consequences or retaliation.
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Even witnesses are worried about what might happen
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to them and their careers.
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Other reasons that people reported
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was not wanting to interfere or not wanting to be a snitch,
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not knowing they could report, or not knowing how.
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All of these things can be targeted
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with better education and better systems in workplaces.
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But the story of the witness isn't complete
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without also talking about the consequences
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for the witnesses themselves.
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If you were to see someone who just witnessed a crime
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being committed on the street,
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you would almost certainly go up to that witness
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and say, "Are you OK?
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Do you need some support?"
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You might even offer them counseling or therapy
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to process what they just saw.
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But witnesses at work are largely invisible.
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And of course, so is support for them.
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And some of this invisibility might even be internalized.
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When we asked our participants about reporting,
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and when we asked them about the negative consequences for them,
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we found that most people said, when asked directly,
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"Did witnessing this experience have a negative repercussion?"
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Most people said, "No, I'm fine."
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But when we looked at the qualitative entries,
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when we looked at what people actually wrote about this experience,
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we found that these experiences had profoundly negative impacts.
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They increased stress and anxiety and depression,
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they increased the prevalence of desire to leave the organization,
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loss of faith.
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Why is there this discrepancy?
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It seems that we're doing a comparative evaluation.
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"Compared to the victim,
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nothing really happened to me."
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But that's not really the right question.
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And support shouldn't be invisible
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just because you're less affected.
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Because we're all affected
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and we should all be supporting each other.
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We also found evidence of a social contagion.
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While 23 percent of participants told HR,
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more, 46 percent, told colleagues, usually someone on their team,
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and 67 percent told someone outside of work.
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What this shows is that the negative consequences of the situation,
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where someone is harassed or discriminated against,
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go far beyond the room.
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People take that story with them
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and that discontent grows as they tell more and more people,
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and this has the real effect
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that is almost certainly threatening your ability as an organization
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to retain and attract diverse and excellent candidates.
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So what do we do to stop this social contagion?
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What do we do to reduce these barriers
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and how do we provide support for witnesses and victims?
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How can we be better allies?
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And it's easier than you might think.
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In my research, I've come across five particular things
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that I think every organization can and should do
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to help tackle this issue
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and to build healthier workplaces.
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First, showcase your commitment.
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If your leadership isn't repeatedly saying
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how important diversity and inclusion is to them,
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and living by example,
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no one is going to believe you.
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An HR-driven campaign is insufficient.
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Your organization is a direct mirror of its leadership team,
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and they need to be setting the tone.
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Second, train your managers.
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The main person who's likely to harass someone in your organization
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is a manager.
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Now, why?
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Perhaps because power corrupts,
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or perhaps because we promote people into managerial roles
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because they're excellent at their jobs,
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and we assume that they will pick up the people skills,
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pick up the management skills along the way.
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But then they don't.
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And this provides a fertile ground for harassment and discrimination
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with unrealistic expectations,
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with poor time management,
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with poor conflict management skills.
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Train your managers.
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Third, we know from research on victims
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that without the ability to report anonymously,
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the fear of consequences is so overwhelming
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that most people will never report incidents.
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We found the same was true for witnesses.
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When we asked them directly, in our study,
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whether organizations could do something
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to improve the fact that they might report,
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they said, number one that they could do better
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was allowing for witness anonymity.
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Second was providing choices about who to report to.
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Perhaps shockingly,
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although managers are the most likely person
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to be perpetrating harassment or discrimination,
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in many organizations
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they're also supposed to be your first point of contact
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when things go wrong.
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Now that's a major sticking point.
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So being able to choose who you go to is crucial.
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Third, encouraging witness reporting.
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Back to setting a tone in your organization,
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saying you can and should report things,
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and you can help stand up for each other.
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Fourth, even when you have all of this in place,
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most people will not speak to HR.
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We know this, because at Spot,
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we though anonymity would solve everything.
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It did not.
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Anonymity is one piece of the puzzle.
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Conducting surveys means that you go out to your employees,
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you don't wait for them to come to you.
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And you ask everybody about how they feel
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about the health of inclusion and diversity efforts
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within the organization.
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And be specific.
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Ask people about specific incidents or specific things they've witnessed.
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Because just like in our survey,
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if you ask people directly
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if they have experienced harassment or discrimination,
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the default answer is no.
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But if you ask about specific experiences or specific behaviors,
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most people go, "Oh, yeah, I saw that the other week."
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So making sure you ask the right questions is crucial.
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Finally, and most importantly,
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research shows that one of the best ways to mitigate the bystander effect
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is to build a shared social identity.
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It's not about policing each other,
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it's not about calling each other out,
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it's about being a cohesive unit.
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We are in this together.
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If you attack one of us,
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you are attacking all of us.
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Because wouldn't you want that?
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Wouldn't you want someone to stand by you if something negative happens?
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We're all, hopefully, collectively building an organization
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that is stronger and healthier and more diverse and inclusive.
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Without my allies, I wouldn't be here.
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When I was first targeted with inappropriate behavior at work,
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I fell into a depression,
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and I almost left academia altogether.
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Without a few people who stood by me,
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I wouldn't be on this stage right now.
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And I wish I had a happy ending for you.
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But unfortunately, these individuals are still at it.
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You see, in organizational structures where colleagues work in dispersed ways,
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where it's difficult to know who even to report to,
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never mind what the consequences might be,
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these kinds of behaviors are most likely to flourish for longer.
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But that doesn't stop me from trying to stop it.
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And I can tell you one thing --
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that over the past couple of years of my research,
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I have found that there have been so many positive changes.
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Changes in legislation,
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changes in attitudes,
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and organizations are finally taking these issues seriously.
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I swear, the time of the harassers and the bullies and the discriminators
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is coming to an end.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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