Understanding Discrimination and Harassment in the Workplace (coaching in business)
No commentsBy Josiah Walter
Australian Federal and State legislation states unlawful discrimination occurs when a group of people, individuals are treated less favourably than any other person or group of people because of their ethnicity, race, colour, sex, marital status, age or disability, religion and sexual reference, whether your a member of a trade union and any other characteristic specified under anti-discrimination or human rights legislation.
Workplace discrimination and harassment can occur in:
Employment and selection of staff.
Training and type of training being offered.
Being considered for a transfer, promotion or sacking.
Work place conditions.
What is defined as unlawful harassment?
Under Australian state and federal legislation unlawful harassment can occur when a person humiliated because of their race, or intimidated and insulted because of there colour, ethnicity, or any other specified characteristic under anti-discrimination or human rights legislation.
Workplace harassment can include behaviour such as:
Mailing or submitting sexually explicit or suggestive letters, notes or emails.
The making of derogatory taunts or comments about a persons religion or race. telling insulting The making of jokes about particular racial groups.
Nude or pornographic posters displayed.
The asking of questions about a persons sex life or personal life.
The nature of harassment and or discrimination.
No matter the seriousness of an incident, whether it be a one-off or prolonged and long termed, it will still be judged as harassment or discrimination. If left unchecked the continued harassment will erode the drive and ability of the individual or group to eventually effect the overall performance of their work performance.
However the absence of any formal or verbal complaints is not necessarily any indication that harassment or discrimination is not occurring. In a lot of cases the person or group being harassed or discriminated against will not complain or report the incident in the belief that they will be deemed as wingers or the incident is too trivial. In most cases the victim of the workplace harassment or discrimination is lacking confidence in their own ability and has fear of retribution or even worse, being dismissed.
Hostile working environment
As an employer you will also need to be aware of your responsibilities in making the work environment a safe place from a culture of sexual or racial harassment. Both are deemed as HOSTILE. An example of a potential hostile working environment would include the display of nude or pornographic material, swearing and crude conversations, racially or sex specific jokes.
What can not be classed as harassment or discrimination.
However it must be remembered that comments and advice given by supervisors, work colleagues and managers on the work performance or work related behaviour of an individual or group should not be confused with workplace harassment or discrimination.
Feedback during normal performance appraisals and work performance meetings will always be deemed as stressful and will in some cases effect the well being of the person or group being appraised. However, managers and supervisors should always keep these concerns in mind and perform any necessary appraisal with sensitivity without avoiding the need to provide full and frank feedback to their staff.
What is workplace bullying?
Sourced the from ACTUQ/QCCI/Qld Govt Dept of Workplace Health and Safety , they claim that workplace bullying is “the repeated less favourable treatment of a person by another or others in the workplace, which may be considered unreasonable and inappropriate workplace practice. It includes behaviour that intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates a worker”.
Bullies will use their status or power of position in a company or business to target both men and women with their bullying practices. Bullying behaviour can range from obvious verbal or physical assault to very subtle psychological abuse.
This behaviour would include:
Psychological harassment. (mind games)
Excluding or isolating targeted employees.
Assigning impossible tasks or jobs to targeted employees.
Physical or verbal abuse.
Inconvenience selected employees by deliberately changed work rosters and shifts.
Yell and scream offensive language.
Intimidation
Undermine work performance deliberately by withholding vital job information.
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The 98% Solution Revealed
By Ollie Donovan
Is it the Matrix? Is it somehow tied to Pareto and his ingenious 80/20 rule? Most importantly, can you decipher the code and crack the 98% solution?
Some answers you must find for yourself, but we do all live in a matrix of our own creation….our own mind. The actions you take are governed by the dominant beliefs and values in your head.
When you become aware of this matrix you have created you become very powerful. If it is serving you results other than what you want go in and change it.
Let’s talk for a moment about Google’s 70% solution. Much has been said about it. For the uninitiated it is this:
-Focus 70% of your time on activities that directly pay you the lion’s share of your income (in Google’s case ‘core search’).
-Focus 30% of your time on innovation and new product development.
This is an invaluable insight you can start using today. But what is the 98% solution as it pertains to you?
Imagine this scene like something straight out of a movie. There is a man walking all alone in the middle of this vast expanse that is a desert wasteland. There is nothing and no one as far as the eye can see.
His shoulders are slumped forward, head looking down toward the ground, he is beaten and broken. He searches but for what we know not.
All the grains of sand all around him will not quench his thirst. There is a dry, suffocating heat all around him that stalks his spirit like a mongoose on a King Cobra.
And then as if by magic he sees 3 Oasis’ on the desert horizon. He immediately perks up and begins running toward them (though very slow due to his exhaustion and dehydration).
-The 1st one he gets to is a mirage, nothing more than the same old sand. He gets very discouraged.
-The 2nd one is a false oasis with water unfit to drink. He dips in anyway to the dirty water and it tastes foul.
-The 3rd one is his salvation…pure, clean thirst-quenching drinking water at last.
So who is this man and why am I telling you his tale? Because he is YOU! The desert sand is your friends, family and other uninterested parties the gurus tell you to go after. This desert sand won’t quench your thirst for business success and sales. It definitely can’t be deposited into your bank account.
The suffocating heat and dryness are your competition in your chosen business field. They are also the other non-competing businesses seeking your target people’s attention. It is a dog-eat-dog world and you must outmaneuver these 2 forces to win.
-The 1st oasis mirage is you seeing what you want to see. This supports your current mental state. It is the easiest solution closest to you.
-The 2nd oasis are false prophets and scamsters telling you what to believe to get you to open your wallet so they can take what they want without giving to you. Also, the gurus who tell you of instant wealth with zero effort.
-The 3rd oasis is your holy grail. It is the true solution that people with integrity will show you. If you decide to accept the offer it saves your life (or business in this case).
We have all heard the horrifying, gory stat that 98% of people who start a home business fail. So what is the 98% solution? It is…finding the true oasis and dipping into the pure drinking water. In your business it is MARKETING.
You fish in ponds of hungry fish who want the bait you have. You can do this through the internet very easily. Think of the search terms people who want what you have would use to find you and then setup a page to capture their imagination and attention.
Then of course you follow-up and show them why your business is an excellent choice for them and give them the opportunity to work with you and have access to your expertise.
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Get A Business Coach To Assist You With Building Your Fortune
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 2:45 pm and is filed under business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
