Impact Of Sexual Harassment On Employees

The impact of sexual harassment on employees is generally described in terms of the person it was directed at, and the effect spreads considerably wider.

For the person targeted it can include psychological injury, withdrawal from work, damage to career progression and, frequently, leaving the organisation altogether. Work health and safety law treats sexual harassment as a psychosocial hazard for exactly that reason.

Witnesses are affected as well. Watching conduct go unaddressed teaches people what the organisation actually tolerates, and those who wanted to intervene and did not tend to carry that for a long time.

The team level effects follow from that. Reporting drops away, trust in managers falls, and turnover rises among people who were never directly involved in the conduct at all.

Safe Work Australia treats it as a psychosocial hazard. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s psychological safety training course and sexual harassment course.