How Does Sexual Harassment Impact Remote and Hybrid Workforces

How does sexual harassment impact remote and hybrid workforces? Three things change, and none of them reduces the risk.

It moves into channels. Direct messages, video calls, and platforms nobody is monitoring. That produces a record, which helps a complaint, and it also means conduct reaches someone in their own home at any hour.

It loses witnesses. Conduct in a room is seen by others. Conduct in a one to one message is not, so the person experiencing it has no corroboration and no bystander who might intervene.

And it becomes invisible to the organisation. The informal signals a manager would pick up in a workplace are simply absent.

Policies that describe conduct in physical terms need updating to say this plainly.

The Australian Human Rights Commission publishes guidance for employers. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s internet and social media course and sexual harassment course.