Conventionally, mentorship refers to a relationship between a mentor and a protege for personal development of the latter using the former’s experience and knowledge. “Taking under the wing” is a phrase that aptly describes mentorship. Mentoring in itself is a process where in there is an informal exchange of ideas, communication about experiences, wisdom, social knowledge, psychological support and guidance from the more experienced mentor to the lesser experienced mentee.

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When you think of e-learning, what comes to mind? I think everyone now uses e-learning in some form and most of us do so without realizing it. In the simplest possible terms, just hooking onto the Internet and reading how to use a piece of software you recently purchased is e-learning because you’re using an electronic means to learn something. Get it? Now, that’s not exactly what I’m talking about, but maybe you’re getting the idea of just how much you may be using e-learning unwittingly.

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Did your colleague sabotage and acclaim your work? Did your boss threaten you for no reason? Does your peer leave offensive messages on e-mail or gossip behind your back? Do your seniors put you down in front of customers, management or other workers due to poor communication skills? Does your boss talk rudely to you?

What constitutes workplace harassment? All the situations mentioned above and more add up to workplace harassment. Harassment covers behavior ranging from restrained pressure to forceful tactics in any form of verbal, written or physical conduct that belittles or demonstrates aggression or loathing towards a person on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, status, political affiliation and/or disability.

Various reasons for harassment of peers and subordinates include creating a hostile or unpleasant work environment, interference with employee’s work performance or that which affects the ability of an employee to carry out his or her duties, future employment opportunities or compensation. It is important to recognize harassment signs early to avoid major conflict at a later stage. The victim of harassment should strongly voice his or her objection to offensive behavior, allowing the offending individual(s) to take corrective measures.

Organizations should have a strict workplace harassment prevention policy in place. The policy should outline the organization and its employees’ commitment towards harassment and a proper code of conduct at work.

The first thing an employee can do to avoid workplace harassment is to simply avoid the person(s). The victim can reason with the offender(s) for finding out the root cause of the inappropriate behavior. In case the problem persists, the victim should get in touch with his or her manager or HR department.

If the manager or HR department does not help resolve the problem, the victim should consider taking legal action against the Company for creating a hostile workplace environment and against the offender for harassment.

Organizations should have a complaint handling system for reporting, investigating and resolving workplace complaints. The system should be unbiased and comply with workers, managers, superiors, etc.

By training and educating employees on workplace harassment issues, companies can avoid or control harassment. Many organizations have sensitized themselves to the needs of employees. They organize sensitivity training or diversity training to facilitate respect between people of different religion, ages, genders or races.

Such training should invite participants to talk about any conflict in the face of work environment and encourage them to share their perspectives on the conflicts. Role play exercises by enacting conflict scenarios can help participants realize how their actions can affect other people.

Likewise, even governments have laws in place that provide victims with legal protection from all kinds of workplace harassment.

Do share your thoughts on the same.

The media is full of news about downsizing and layoffs across the world, especially in USA, Europe and recently in Japan. It is disconcerting, to say the least. Losing one’s job is something which nightmares are made of. From a company’s point of view also it a question of survival.

What about a small Indian company, like CommLab, most of whose customers are in these countries? How do we plan to cope or coping, for that matter?

For us, downsizing is never an option because we consider sacking our employees to cut down costs akin to a family asking some of its members to leave home because there isn’t much on the table! We are conservative and cautious when we take in a person or create a position. Once a person is taken in, he is with us in good times and bad times.

How do we then meet our expenses if the business starts drying up? Well, I remember a scion of a huge conglomerate saying that if we don’t have enough money, we don’t cook costly dishes but subsist on staples. We can have everything we need, if we accept that there are always alternatives. The resistance is therefore more mental and psychological. A manager always traveling first class finds it very difficult to travel second class; but he can, till the company tides over. When the company doesn’t raise the bogey of retrenchment or cuts in salaries, usually the employees show their appreciation by working harder and spending lesser of company’s resources. We can survive longer, if we decide to.

Recession is the best time for a company to get new business because your customers are also looking for ways and means of reducing their expenses. We offer our services at much lesser price than usual because we know that our customers will appreciate it and make good in the days to come. Will you not, if you are in their place?

This is also the best time to do some serious housekeeping – evaluating existing systems and procedures, training employees and a host of other “maintenance” activities which are “important but not urgent”. This is the best time to “sharpen our axes” and be ready for the slump to come to an end.

Business cycles are natural and inevitable. If we accept this fact, our brains can come up with numerous creative ways to survive and subsist during tough times. So recession is good news at CommLab.