Harassment Awareness and Prevention

As a manager now (albeit only a manager of contractors), I had to complete an online course in “Preventing Workplace Harassment” today.  Yes, I had to be told that harassment is bad.  The course was about as awful as you imagine – full of those kind of HR videos that you saw on The Office (both UK and US versions) with poor actors and ridiculous/hilarious workplace scenarios (the funniest being the workplace relationship breakups).  This particular course was for some reason presented as a news story/talk show – it was truly cringe-worthy.  Naturally the course took ages to get through – what a complete waste of time.  I found it particularly controversial in saying it was not recommended that a manager accept a friend request from an employee – I disagree and don’t see an issue with that.  The timing of this course (I think/hope it was rolled out to everyone rather than specifically to me for something I’ve said or done!) seemed suspiciously coincidental with the upcoming change in presidency – President-elect Trump after all is almost definitely guilty of sexual harassment plus has made all other kinds of bigoted statements on religion and race, and is a clear bully.  Arguably – actually inarguably – I have been a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace in the past: someone has pinched my ass in the workplace before.  I could have made a big deal of it, but I didn’t since it was right when I had first moved to the US and didn’t want to create any undue trouble.  In the unlikely event it happened now, I would make a huge stink about it.  So perhaps the course has worked!