Learning Task 3: Respect in the Workplace
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Contributing to A Respectful Workplace
All workers are responsible for their own conduct and ensuring that they maintain a respectful workplace. Employers are responsible for ensuring that they take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of their workers in a workplace that is free from bullying and harassment. Employers that indenture apprentices are also responsible for ensuring that their apprentices are provided learning opportunities to continue their growth in their field.
Workers also have a responsibility to others in keeping the workplace respectful. This means that as workers if you witness inappropriate behaviors towards others, you need to know how to intervene to create a safe space for your co-workers. This is often referred to as “being more than a bystander,” a bystander is someone who stands by and watches as things unfold. The consequences of being a bystander can be potentially detrimental to someone physically or psychologically. Imagine this; you witness a serious car accident, but rather than calling 911 and getting help for those involved, you watch the situation unfold and maybe even take a picture. The consequences in this example are quite obvious, however in some cases where they may not be as blatant, it is still important to consider the impact on those involved. The act of being more than a bystander is intervening in a way that either diffuses the situation or helps to remove the target of the inappropriate behaviour from the situation. These situations can vary from physical threats, to harassment, to racist or sexist comments or more.
Interventions can be achieved in a number of different ways including:
- Taking the attention off the target, changing the topic of conversation or the art of distraction can often quickly shift focus from the target to something else.
- Confronting the behavior, directly engaging with the person participating in the inappropriate behavior when safe to do so, can shut down further harm and show that you find this behavior to be unacceptable in the workplace.
- Finding assistance to intervene, if you don’t feel as though there is a safe way to do either of the above options, or you are not comfortable stepping in, this is a way to still make a difference. By engaging with a supervisor, a peer, or an authority figure for assistance, you can still help to diffuse the situation and ensure the safety of your co-worker. Remember safety does not just apply to physical harm, but also psychological harm.
Larger companies and governmental organizations will normally have new employee orientations (in person or online) as well as employee manuals or specific codes of conduct regarding what is expected in the workplace. Smaller companies may not have these formalized tools, but they are still subject to the same federal and provincial legislation put in place