A colleague is being harassed at work. What should I do?
To talk about this subject, I'd like to start with an image from everyday life. Imagine you're walking up a flight of stairs, and someone coming down falls in front of you. If you're a normal person, you'd go up to them and ask them how they're doing, if they're in pain, and if they need help. This is what we do almost mechanically, without thinking, when faced with someone in pain.
So now my question to you is this: why is it so difficult for us to reach out to someone suffering from violence or harassment at work? Because in the case of a victim of harassment, we're talking about suffering as well, which is psychological and more serious than in the case of a fall down the stairs, if we don't do too badly...
Why do we find it hard to take action against harassment?
The reasons for inaction in the face of harassment can be linked to the fear of also being targeted if we come to help, and we remain powerless like the victim. We may also be prevented from acting because of our dependence on the company.
So, despite the obvious, we allow harassment to perpetrate itself by persisting in the belief that we're in a "good environment". This set of beliefs leads us to believe that in an organization like ours, harassment does not exist, and the person who is harassed can be seen as a troublemaker.
In this way, we perceive only what we wish to perceive, and the victim is left alone. What hurts most is not the harassment itself, but the loneliness in which the victim finds herself. This is how the trap works: the victim ends up thinking that the harassment is legitimate, that she is indeed useless, useless, too much, etc., and is ready to consider the worst.
Turn to professionals
Our aim, then, is to put an end to the culture of silence and move on to the culture of the spoken word. To do this, we need to find the right attitudes and behaviours through a network of professionals. Telephone helplines to psychologists such as Pros Consulte, employee representative bodies, the Human Resources department, the occupational physician, the labor inspector and the French ombudsman will give you invaluable advice and help you protect your colleague who has been the victim of this violence.
As a colleague, you're one of the first people to take the initiative in effective prevention, and there are three key points to bear in mind:
- know what harassment means,
- how to be vigilant about the impact of harassment on the victim
- know when and how to talk about it.
Know what it's all about
According to the law, moral harassment in the workplace consists of repeated abusive behavior, whether intentional or not, that harms a person. This may relate to working conditions, dignity, physical or mental health, or professional future.
These repeated acts of harassment are not necessarily intentional, since they are intended to harm the other person. There may be situations where a harasser has seriously and unjustifiably degraded the person's working conditions, through negligence or stress.
What we need to remember is that there are three mandatory criteria for harassment: repeated harassment, a deterioration in working conditions and personal harm. Case law helps us to see more clearly what constitutes harassment. A deterioration in working conditions could be the imposition of humiliating tasks, such as requiring a secretary to affix stamps 3 millimeters on either side of the edge of the envelope, then checking each stamp with a ruler.
And the third criterion, harm to the person, could be, for example, depression linked to deteriorating working conditions. These three criteria must therefore be present for a judge to qualify a situation as harassment.
To make the difference between conflict and harassment, in a conflict the violence can be reciprocal, there's opposition, it can go far, there's arguing, whereas in harassment there's violence too, but it's not reciprocal, it only goes one way, it's unilateral, the victim is crushed, dominated, it's the harasser who has the power.
Harassment affects everyone, whatever their status, whatever their hierarchical level and whoever is well integrated into the company. Harassment does not only come from the hierarchy, but also from colleagues or employees towards their managers.
And contrary to popular belief, the perpetrator of harassment is not always a pervert. In fact, the law specifies that harassment concerns behaviour that may be unintentional. In fact, an anxiety-provoking climate, or a situation of over-stress, can lead to behaviour going out of control.
Acts of harassment recognized by the courts include humiliation, having someone do tasks below their qualifications, slandering, insulting or criticizing them in a disqualifying way at a work meeting, taking away a task that was part of their duties...
Swedish psychosociologist Leymann, who first coined the term "mobbying" to describe harassment, listed 45 possible forms of harassment.
The most common forms of harassment are dismissal, demotion, preventing employees from communicating with the outside world (e.g. cutting the phone line, isolating the office)...
Beware of our perception bias: it's not harassment, for example, when we receive a remark about a late arrival or a refusal to grant leave.
In both these cases, the manager is well within his or her role: he or she has to make decisions about leave, and can refuse it if the workload of the department requires it, and must ensure that his or her colleagues respect the company's work rules.
On the other hand, not saying hello, isolating a person, encouraging colleagues to avoid him or her - if the behavior towards one colleague is different from that towards another, if there is repetition and if it is damaging to the person's mental health, for example - this is harassment.
Increasing vigilance: what are the signs in a victim?
It's about being discerning about the signs to detect, so you know when to be concerned about a situation and turn on the red light. It's all about learning to recognize the signs of workplace suffering linked to harassment, which aren't immediately obvious.
To detect signs of harassment, you can observe over-stress, chronic fatigue, dramatic weight gain or loss, depression...
One of the strongest signs is the phobia of returning to work after sick leave. This is because victims of harassment are plagued by obsessive thinking: at first, you feel you're managing, then you gradually end up thinking of nothing else.
These repeated humiliations leave a trace in the psyche: the person doubts himself and lives with the memory of real or supposed persecution all the time. This leads to self-doubt: is it really me or is it the other person? It's the shame of having been subjected to this and of not having been able to defend oneself, and then it's the loss of confidence.
This can go as far as a condition known as post-traumatic stress, which corresponds to a loss of self-discovery. Some people speak of a psychic coma, with the person thinking all the time about the attack and developing a phobia about work, often making it impossible to return to the workplace.
Knowing how and when to talk about it
We can start a dialogue with someone who feels they're being abused: "I have the impression that you don't look well, do you want to talk about it? With this kind of talk, the situation can begin to calm down.
It's important to first listen to the person, trying to understand them without judging them, and helping them to recognize their situation. It can be important to mirror what the person is going through, by expressing your feelings of concern for them in a tactful way, as they may not realize the extent of their situation.
Based on the three criteria for harassment discussed above, you need to work with her to recognize her status as a victim and the need to take action.
Secondly, it is important to encourage the employee to contact the people who can help. The French Labor Code sets out a system designed to prevent all forms of harassment in the workplace, and makes employers responsible for the physical and moral safety of their employees.
Employers must therefore take all necessary measures to detect, communicate and train employees in the prevention of harassment, and to punish proven harassment.
There are several ways of alerting you, so you can either direct your colleague to the prevention players present in the company, or support him in his efforts, if he so wishes.
There are many players involved in prevention within the company, with different, complementary skills: all staff representatives, union representatives, the occupational physician, the human resources department, the social worker, the company manager or the head of the establishment. External players who can intervene include the Défenseur des Droits and the Inspecteur du Travail.
What's more, as soon as you report a situation to these players, you are bound by a guarantee of confidentiality, both towards yourself and towards the people involved or implicated.
As a witness, you are protected by the French Labor Code, and have the same rights as the victim. You may not be discriminated against in terms of pay, promotion, training or renewal of your employment contract (article 1153-3 of the French Labor Code).
