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Digital Harassment 1.0
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12-Dec-2008
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Believe it or not, you probably have been a victim of it; digital harassment. No, this does not mean you have a stalker, nor does it mean that some 40 year old is trying to coerce you on MySpace.com, assuming you are a 13 year old girl. Just as is the case in the real world, digital harassment is something of an umbrella term. I would also be willing to wager it is used to 'terrify' people significantly more than physical or verbal harassment, and even on a daily basis, simply because so many people are unaware of doing it, unaware of it happening to them, and unaware that it just as serious as any other form of violence.
This article will not really delve into the psyche behind the kind of person that would or wouldn't engage in digital harassment; that really isn't my field of expertise, and it is such a new field of study there really are no experts on it. Nonetheless, I will give you a list of things that you may be doing, or may be have happened to you, and from that you can choose for yourself the appropriate reaction to take. I will start off by breaking down some of the different methods.
Digital Intimidation
You may think that this falls under typical harassment. And, to an extent, it does. This is kind of the 'hate crime' grey area where a crime can fall under multiple jurisdictions, however, the particular case here is that it is digital in nature. Digital Intimidation can come in many forms. It can be telling someone they will lose their job if they do not have super IT skills. It could even be telling someone they are simply too old to learn new skills (and, yes, this does overlap with ageism). Common sense would suggest that, yes, there are certain skills and requirements in order to perform a job. Truth be told, however, if the government did not set those skills and requirements, you are engaging in a form of discrimination. Think back not too long ago when a man applied for a waitress job at a Hooters restaurant, was declined, and successfully sued them for workplace discrimination.
The reality of what you are doing when you say someone is too old, or not with it, is intimidating them and causing a lot of mental stress, if not other ailments as well. This is even more devastating when a person already is employed in the position in question. Nature dictates that jobs (and descriptions) will change, however, we all need to work, we all need to eat, and we are all useful to some extent. You cannot expect everyone to change with every new trend or practice that comes out. That of course is not to say that your organization must stay behind in the Dark Ages either.
What it boils down to is that there is a right way to handle something, and a wrong way – that could get you sued. Employee training and seminars are par for the course in today's modern world; particularly with positions that are either highly technocentric or that experience a new, state of the art leap in IT implementation. As long as you are doing your part to train current employees on what they need to do in order to perform their job correctly, you are not only covered, but doing the right thing. Even reimbursing employee initiated training, as many companies do today, is a good step – as not everybody learns the same way, or at the same pace. If a particular employee is not picking up the necessary skills to perform their job, it would be appropriate to have a sit down with them, give them a probationary period, and move on from there based on the findings. If the outlook is not good, then clearly the old job description is no longer appropriate. At that point, it would be appropriate to dissolve the old position, create a new one with a new job description, which would accurately reflect the change in how your organization does business. As well, based on the applicants that you receive from this new job offering, you might find that the direction you took the new position was quite wrong – and you can reconsider the previously mentioned employee and the particular methods for acquainting them with the new skill set. Do not assume the employee is the problem; sometimes, it is in fact the chosen “solution”.
As this is a particularly large issue, it will be across several installments. More to come... |
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