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Sexism at Workplace
Name Institution Affiliation Sexism at Workplace
There are several occurrences where a colleague at a workplace mentions or says something that makes other people uncomfortable or feel offended. Most of them find their comments funny or hardly notice how inappropriate they sound. On the other hand, the rest of the colleagues find it offensive, racist or sexist. In such a case, how to handle such a scenario is quite critical, and the next steps taken are precarious due to the uncertainty if the words spoken are bias or not and the aftermath which might involve being penalized. It is crucial therefore to weigh the benefits of speaking against the consequences, avoid making assumptions or accusations and explaining how the comment made you feel.
Doing nothing about the situation or staying silent is another way of approving the colleague behavior hence encouraging him to do it again. Not, in all cases, people have the seniority power to point out the problem, file a complaint and have the colleague reprimanded. As for the example of managers, it is their responsibility to ensure that every employee works in a comfortable environment. However, for an employee, it is essential to consider the person or people you are dealing with, the type of reaction they might have and the political cost of calling out the issue and reporting them to authorities. Such events should be taken as an opportunity to improve the working behavior of the employee and even increasing the social bond.

The option of filing a complaint that would result in the employment contract of the two being terminated and being denied financial aid is preferably the final option as a way of handling the situation. Furthermore, the penalties are way too much for such an incident and measures such as suspension and referring the person to a social behavior lesson can be used since everyone makes mistakes. However, if the behavior persists, punishments such as termination of working contracts may be used.
Indeed, sexism in the workplace is inappropriate behavior and ignoring or choosing not to address the situation when it occurs, encourages the practice to continue. Also walking away from the issue and terming it as “that’s what boys do” or “boys will be boys” instead indicate that one is okay with sexism in the workplace. Also, sexism is no less offensive than racist as they both end up making one feel offended and uncomfortable. Assuming the whole issue in no way does it make one responsible nor a friend to a workmate. There is no guarantee that allowing the behavior to be practiced in a private forum will keep it from one day escalating into a public forum. Worst of all, allowing it to mature privately among people makes it impossible handle, when it gets out to the public, as the conscious part of the brain would have already accepted the fact that it is okay to be sexist. Therefore, it is important not to allow it to go on by engaging the participants in a conversation advising them to stop doing it.
However, it’s essential to have a strategy on how to bring the conversation to the table with the sexists since according to Barnett (2005), any slight case that a person might feel they are judged as sexists might make them more defensive and uninterested in the discussion. Pek and Leong (2003) advice on not to assume that what was said was meant to offend or make one uncomfortable. In most case, the people participating in a sexist conversation are clueless on the fact that they are misbehaving at the workplace. Therefore, having an informal discussion with the colleagues without making assumptions or being judgmental. In this case, they will be less defensive and open to hearing out how their conversation made you uncomfortable and how inappropriate it sounds.
Making use of a smartphone to record the conversation and using it as a threat is rather more manipulative and inappropriate in a workplace. Recording conversations without someone’s permission are considered unethical and breach of privacy. In this case, the mechanism of solving the problem is already illegal and no different from sexism. Furthermore, using the recording as a tool to intimidate the colleges also puts the whole idea as unethical practice as no worker can intimidate fellow workers in the place of work.
Like most organization, the firm faces a problem of some workers not being able to understand or recognize that sexism is offensive and unethical. Allowing it to manifest among employees in the organization is likely to increase hostility among workers, and the organization might end up losing their best workers who feel offended and not able to work comfortably in the firm. To handle the issue, the agency can meet up with all the employees and make it clear that all types of sexist conversations including those that are meant to be jokes are unacceptable and offenders will be punished. For the employees who find it hard to stop or differentiate what sexist talk and non-sexist conversation are, the organization can set up a sociology lessons for the employees so that they can educate them more on how to avoid and stop any sexist discussion in the organization.

References
Barnett, R. C. (2005). Ageism and sexism in the workplace. Generations, 29(3), 25-30.
Pek, J. C., & Leong, F. T. (2003). Sex-related self–concepts, cognitive styles and cultural values of traditionality–modernity as predictors of general and domain-specific sexism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 6(1), 31-49.