Women suffer more sexual harassment To this blatantly obvious statement, he put the data, than men at work. EurofoundA European Union institution tasked with examining working conditions in 27 member states and how to improve them. Specifically, the number of female workers suffering from some type of disease is three times higher. sexual violence or micro machismo during it work day than their male counterparts. On a sectoral basis, sector employees sanitary They are most prone to suffer some form of sexual harassment during their professional performance.
The Eurofound survey is based on the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey, a survey based on 70,000 interviews with people from 36 countries of the ‘Old Continent’. And the main conclusion drawn from the analysis published this week is that they are more vulnerable diagonally. ill-treatment by their superiors, colleagues or people outside the company or organization they work for in their work centers. Moreover, younger the female, the more likely she is to experience some form of hostility.
Being exposed to childbirth and/or sexual harassment in the workplace directly affects work life. sanity Stress, anxiety, insomnia, headaches, intestinal upset or skin reactions are some of the symptoms that those who have been attacked list. Ariadna Villa, an expert in combating gender-based violence and a board member of the Col•legi Oficial de Psicòlogia de Catalunya. “The pressure on the victim is very high and affects all aspects of his personal and professional life,” he says.
According to Eurofound data, victims of hostile behavior in the workplace are nearly three times more likely to experience such behavior. physical fatigue And emotional and almost twice as likely to suffer anxiety or be at risk depression than a person who does not suffer from it.
Mandatory protocol in all companies
All companies, according to approved regulations 2007Regardless of their size, they are a must have. protocol against sexual assault. The problem, as explained by the equality and education secretary of the UGT of Catalonia, Eva GajardoThe reason is that not all companies comply with this formal obligation, and many companies lack transparency and credibility. According to consultant and ETT data adeccohalf of the companies do not have this kind of protocol.
“Unfortunately, the most common thing is that the woman who was assaulted eventually takes the blame. Low or leaving the company and the attacker commits a petty crime or doesn’t even do that,” he affirms. dismissal and they use it as an example so that nothing similar happens again, it’s covered here. We see how attackers are fired under the pretext of low productivity and nothing is disclosed,” he adds.
According to Vilà of Col•legi de Psicòlogia, one of the keys to prevention and action mechanisms against workplace bullying is that it is publicly known and the implementation steps are clear. “The attacker needs to know who to contact to activate the protocol and that reference person trust and there is one education enough to know how to behave,” he explains. “Victims should feel safe making a report because otherwise what is achieved is to stamp them increase the pressure on them,” he said.
To ensure this, both traceability Vilà and Gajardo insist that protocols must be agreed between management and workers, as well as making all employees aware of what hostile behavior is—whether they endure, witness, or perpetrate it. And that these are not a unilateral attempt by the former, which may serve to prevent fines before Labor inspection, but will not really prevent attacks. In addition, poorly managed aggression, insecurity lowers its performance and, if disclosed, harms the corporate image of the company.
The more public exposure, the more aggression.
Although gender inequalities have a crossover effect, workers are not equally vulnerable in all sectors. The Eurofound report shows that a telephone operator’s risk of being raped is not the same as that of a telephone operator. servant She was harassed by a customer who came to clean her room. According to his information, 5.7% of toilets Being the group that suffers the most from sexual harassment in the past year coincides with its high feminisation.
“What a young woman may have to endure at the box office in a hospital or primary care center is, creepy“, confirms the coordinator of the working group against sexist violence of the Catalan Association of Family and Community Medicine (Camfic), Pilar Babi. “If you go to attend a meeting, House You don’t know what you can find. Often ‘Good morning doctor, would you like coffee?’ someone will say. But not at other times, and you’re completely vulnerable there,” she adds.
It is also connected Catalonian Metges He thinks that there has been a change in institutions in the last 10 years and that they “gained awareness and took precautions” in order not to expose the health community to situations like those described above. “The response has to be strong and the training of professionals in this sense is crucial. We have to put ourselves in the worst situation, we have to assume it will happen, professionals need to have the tools to recognize these behaviors and try to manipulate them. And what can’t always be done is to repair the damage,” he concludes.