The other day a friend and I got talking about Bombay Begums, even though I didn’t enjoy the series it did highlight some very important issues specially workplace harassment/assault that women continue to face even today.

As I look back now, I realize back in 2004 when we had just stepped into the corporate world we weren’t even aware of the term workplace harassment.Sadly most of us did experience one or the other form of workplace harassment but we didn’t know better so we handled it the best way we knew and moved on.

Take this episode from 2005 one year into my professional life and this senior colleague sent me an email telling me how my behavior would lead me into great trouble because I had declined to watch movie with him.Well we had an office offsite on Friday and he was leaving earlier than the rest of the team.So when he offered a lift,I said Sure.As we were about to reach,he goes How about a 6’o clock show?It’s Friday evening.I had plans so I just politely said NO,thank you,said bye and that’s that.

Come Monday,I find this lengthy email in my mailbox,he had taken his time to write I could tell.The gist of the email was basically him telling me how It was just a movie and my behavior had been unacceptable!And that there were seniors who notice all this which could lead to serious issues in my work life.

I was shocked and for a moment even scared.I gathered myself and finally sent him a befitting response basically telling him that my work would speak for itself and how I don’t fraternize with seniors outside office hours.Here I am thankful to parents,if nothing they taught me not to take things lying down specially when you are not at the wrong.

This clearly constituted to workplace intimidation,if I look back now,he basically threatened me.

How I wish I knew better.I didn’t report it to the HR,I didn’t save that email, I didn’t talk to my manager about it.I handled it the best way I knew and moved on.Being very careful of who and how I interacted with people going forward.

Here is another one,it happened to very dear friend of mine.This was around 2007 one evening as she was walking down from work to get a cab,a senior director who was passing by offered to drop her to the taxi stand which was like 10 minutes walk away.

She politely refused,but when he insisted,she thanked him and got into the car.He started of by telling her how she’s doing really well at work and then he went on to tell her how he would love for them to meet over weekend,just the two of them.It took her a minute to realize what was going on,she asked him to stop the car pretending she had forgotten something back at office.As he stopped the car even before she realized,he leaned over to her side to open the door and felt her.Five minutes of car ride,that’s it!!She just pushed his hand and stepped out.

Here we are 23-24 year olds living the corporate dream and then this happens.This was a form of sexual assault.We had no knowledge on how to handle this.Besides who was going to believe her over a senior director in the company?

She didn’t say a word to anyone at the office and eventually we all moved on from this episode.

These incidents speak of how we went through casual harassment in and around work and had no tools or knowledge at our disposal on how to tackle it.It was years later that we slowly started hearing and learning about workplace harassment.By then we had experience and age on our end to know better.

There are many such incidents subtle and not so subtle that we women face even today and many a times we we brush it off,categorizing it as harmless,a one off thing.Remember,It’s not your job to justify his actions.If it made you uncomfortable,then it needs to be dealt with.It’s not our shame to carry,it’s theirs.

As a mother of two girls,I vow to empower them with knowledge,laws,tools so that when they step out into corporate world they know better and of course there is always Taekwondo!

Thankfully for the media today everyone knows of workplace harassment.If not anything, at least the younger generation is alert and aware .There are rules and laws in place. It may not be enough but it is slowly getting better and I am glad for that.

Ending it with some articles I found on web,give it a read when you have time.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace-India , Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace-India

Types of Workplace Harassment.