By 2025, 36.2 million Americans are expected to be employed remotely, making working from home the new standard. Even while remote work has advantages, it also reduces employer-employee contact, which results in workplace problems that go unrecognized as a result of a scattered workforce.
According to a recent survey, 38% of workers have encountered harassment through email, video, phone, or online chat. Cyberbullying, harassment, and discrimination all persist online and are becoming more pervasive.
Workers need to feel comfortable reporting wrongdoing to HR or supervisors whether they are at home or at work, however only 50% of employees report harassment, and 34% of employees have left a job because of unresolved harassment issues.
Bringing Up the Problems
Employers should make preventing these issues a major priority since poor employee morale and high turnover rates may destroy any company, no matter how big or small. Employers should put in place a mechanism that enables workers to anonymously report any difficulties and enables employers to resolve issues at the first hint of difficulty in order to encourage them to report wrongdoing.
Creating an employee reporting policy is one of the first steps in addressing problems in remote workplaces. Encouragement for proactive reporting of significant concerns gives workers back control and gives them concrete instructions for resolving conflicts with peers without supervision. Employers have the chance to provide more clear, detailed instructions and examples of what should be reported, and this should go beyond yearly training.
fuzzy lines
The biggest problem with a remote job is that the customary codes of behavior are no longer relevant. Working from home may cause expectations and behaviors of employees to become more ambiguous, particularly in the less formal setting that this new move away from the office fosters. In a similar vein, workplace interactions between employees may degenerate into improper, and the anonymity of Zoom conversations and chat rooms can enable inappropriate behavior to go unchecked.
Employers must be aware of this gap and take aggressive measures to close it since, in the remote workplace, distinctions between improper physical contact and unwelcome attention no longer hold true. A clear description of the company's employee expectations for working from home must go hand in hand with a peer-reporting policy. Employees must understand that any discomfort should not be accepted and that raising their concerns will result in prompt action, according to their employers.
Creating a Successful Policy
Employers must provide workers with a peer reporting site in order to make this policy really implementable since old hotlines are no longer functional. Without a user-friendly reporting platform, workers are unlikely to follow these standards or feel comfortable participating, therefore making it possible for employees to submit any problems or complaints is crucial. To prevent prejudice and favoritism, this system must assure accountability and that reports are delivered to the appropriate level of leadership in a timely way and consistently.
It is crucial to ensure anonymity since it's possible that employees won't feel comfortable approaching HR with complaints, particularly if those complaints include a manager or a supervisor. This relieves the burden on the employee to report the incident, and it also enables HR to handle the matter in secret and only notifies those required to finish an investigation into the conduct.
Any strategy to avoid misbehavior among a remote workforce must include one more crucial component: communicating the goals of the policy. If employees know that the primary objective of a remote misbehavior prevention policy is to keep them safe, they are far more likely to interact with and support it. Employers must make this point plain and often.
A Fresh Horizon
Employers have been able to boost productivity and take advantage of a wider talent pool thanks to the development of remote workforces, but it hasn't come without difficulties. Boundaries and professional standards have had to be renegotiated for employees who work from home, and the lack of visibility into their daily activities has enabled toxic behaviors, including harassment and bullying, to migrate online, where it is more difficult to follow or intervene.
Employers should establish a peer reporting policy, provide workers access to an anonymous gateway to voice their complaints, and repeatedly stress the policy's justification in order to combat this risk of misbehavior among remote workers. Opportunities for remote work have increased the potential for success across a wide range of sectors. By aggressively addressing the negative effects of a remote workplace, firms may simultaneously enjoy the benefits and ensure employee safety.
Remote misconduct is the act of harassing, stalking, or otherwise making someone feel unsafe when they are not in the same location. This can include sending unwanted texts and emails, as well as following a person on social media.
In Atlanta, there was a recent case of remote misconduct that involved a woman who was being harassed by her ex-boyfriend, You can hire the service for Remote misconduct in Atlanta. He would show up at her house unannounced and follow her on Facebook and Instagram. He even sent her messages from fake accounts pretending to be other people in order to make it seem like she had an admirer or friend who cared about her. The police were able to get him arrested after he showed up at her house again and she called them for help.