Harassment environment
One of the biggest problem of harassment or sexual harassment at work is the lack of awareness of people who are not actively involved but also lack of awareness of the active harasser. Before I write a few words about the lack of awareness themselves, I describe an environment of harassment.
Here one simplified example of a very common case: Within a group of people working together (not necessarily at the same location) are male workers who are experts and on an average higher education level and female workers who are no experts usually. The female workers may have a higher education levels too but are acting at work on a simpler administrative level. That all does not have to be in an office. However, office work gives many times greater harassing “opportunities” for the conscious and subconscious harasser.
The simple difference of acting experts and others already can be an environment of harassment if the majority of experts are mostly of or only of one kind of gender. For a person who never worked in such an environment it is may be difficult to believe that these simple 2 attributes (experts of the same sex) are already a potential environment of harassment. For a person actually working in such a working environment it is not that difficult to believe.
Interesting is the fact that there are 2 further properties involved. Beside of the gender and expert level, the fact that there are active harassers and those who do not act as harassers. Of the active ones, there are consciously acting and subconsciously acting harassers.
How can a person harass without being aware of his or her wrong doing? This is in my opinion usually only possible in an potential environment of harassment. That is why I also write about it.
If the awareness is not there about such potential environment, people directly and indirectly involved are having the tendency to watch in a different direction and also try to displace it. That pattern is common and the break out of it usually only happens if the harassments are reaching a critical level (whatever that may be in each individual environment) or a person actively tries to change something in regard of the harassment.
The subconscious harasser lacks of awareness and does not realize the misconduct. It is also possible that the person does figure it out but because of having certain behavioural pattern deep inside (mostly because of a longer time doing it in this way) it is very difficult to develop the courage to stop and change. These ignorant subconscious harasser I would count to the group of conscious active harassers.
In the end a few more words of inactive or non-active workers in an environment of potential harassment where harassment really takes place. Humans hare social group animals who are only like real humans if not being isolated and alone. We all have given social competences. We have to be really busy and this without any break time for thinking to be not in the situation to feel that something is being done wrong. Harassment is usually only possible if others are trying to not realize it. Not watching is not only ignoring. It is an indirect but active support to the harasser.
Survival strategies are very deep in us and especially at work places where different ranks of workers exist, it is easy to not watching the harassment with the excuse of survival. Courage is a challenge; but not impossible.