TrainingBriefs® Actively Preventing Harassment

Harassment in our workplace is unacceptable – in any format! Being an active bystander in a situation where someone is being harassed can be speaking up and telling the harasser to stop… or it can be subtle (e.g. stepping between the harasser and the target of the harassment). The important thing to remember is that if you see harassing behavior - and you feel comfortable - you CAN intervene.

If you see something, you need to say something. That can take the form of being an active bystander. An active bystander is someone who not only witnesses a situation but takes steps to speak up or step in to keep a situation from escalating... or to disrupt a problematic situation.