Zero tolerance for workplace harassment

This article was first published in 2013.

Every sign is ominous in retrospect.

Before the 23-year-old and her friend got into the private bus in Delhi on December 16, 2013, did alarm bells ring in her head? Did she think, these men look wrong, I have a bad feeling about this? Even if she did have a ‘bad feeling’, would she have paid attention to it? Aren’t we routinely taught to ignore our instincts and be ‘rational’? Perhaps she might’ve listened to her instincts if she was alone—but she was with a guy and she, like many of us, thought that was protection enough. She might still be alive if she was alone that day on the highway.

We routinely turn our instincts off or lower the volume on them because we’re told it’s paranoid to listen. I have worked in more than one place with an ‘office creep’. In the first office, everyone ignored the dusty senior citizen in the accounts department who talked to your chest—he seemed harmless enough, and we laughed at him afterwards. In another office, one of the first bits of wisdom I received was to keep my distance from this one man, who, I was told, made it a point to brush past the girls in the team. He seemed to be hearing impaired or chose to ignore anyone who told him to back off. All the girls were warned about him and we all kept our distance.

One night, he startled a colleague who was working late in office by standing very close to her as she bent to get something from the fridge. She complained to the boss, and the matter was eventually escalated to the topmost manager of the company. Some wanted him to be let off with a warning, others wanted him to be sacked immediately. But a surprising number of people—men and women—came to his defence. He has daughters at home, how will he fend for his family if he loses his job, they said. Surely the girls were overreacting, they said. It’s not like anything happened, right?

Soon, the girl who he startled in the pantry asked if she should withdraw her complaint. She was beginning to feel pressured to do it, not by her boss, but by all those colleagues who felt bad for the guy.

Despite the boss and the manager wanting to do the right thing, the man stayed on, thanks to a legal technicality in his contract. He continued to be a part of everyone’s life—it made us uncomfortable to come across him and the urge to immediately shrink from his presence persisted, especially when he was in the lift with you. One day, he got drunk in office and peered into a girl’s blouse as they passed each other at the entrance. She screamed at him and everyone gathered around to listen and ask questions. The man disappeared that evening, but he kept his job.

As far as I can tell, the only reason he wasn’t sacked was because he hadn’t actually raped anyone. Maybe he’s a rapist, maybe he’s just a garden-variety creep. Either way, he and his tribe are secure in their place. They will keep their jobs, attend office parties, even enjoy the occasional tipple at work. They’re safe because there will always be someone to make excuses for them. To say, poor guy, he’ll be destroyed if he loses this job. To say, yeah but these girls walk around in their shorts and tank-tops in office, what do they expect? To say, listen, but he didn’t do anything, right?

Because it takes six men and a metal rod and one dead 23-year-old to shake this country out of its apathy. One girl frightened out of her wits at a workplace she thought was safe won’t do it. She’s still alive, you see. We’re reserving our compassion for the dead.

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