Awareness and action. Harassment can be unintentional or calculated. It can be instigated by unorganized individuals, or formulated to achieve a deliberate outcome. Organized harassment is aimed at pushing complainants out of their jobs or educational institutions. This section hopes to bring awareness to the growing trend of organized harassment. The following information is from personal experience, articles, the workplace harassment and violence report, and individual testimonies. What became obvious is the growing trend and similarities between incidents. It time we became aware of the emerging pattern of harassment, and it's time to take action. Human Resources Have you gone to HR only to have them take the side of the harasser? HR is part of your workplace administration, they are not always there for your benefit, or to do what's right. They are there to perform whatever is in the best interest of the company. The best interest of the company and the bottom line is money. Keeping complainant quite is apparently more cost effective than acknowledging they have a problem. Many harassers are senior members who the company have invested in, and it's not in their best interest to fire that person. If your harasser is a manager, they also may have privileged information the company doesn't want going public. This intimate knowledge then becomes a bargaining chip senior members use with companies. Harasser Commendations Did your harasser get a commendation or promotion after your compliant, or subsequent complaint? This is a method that some companies are using to quite down complainants. The harasser is shown to be a highly decorated member of the company who they see fit to promote. Promoting harassers gives credence to their case, and reduces the validity of the complainants. Defending the harasser Once these maneuvers are in place, the pretense of neutrality is dispensed. That is another method companies frequently use as intimidation. Companies will devalue the targets experience, make harassment targets seem like they are the aggressors, or make it seem like it's in their head. This is standard operating procedure with some companies. Make a stink go see a shrink. Still not happy? Do you keep complaining? It's time for you to go see a shrink. Something must be wrong with you. This is a new method of keeping complainants quite. If targets keep complaining or takes further action against the company, they are asked to go see a shrink. Companies are using this to discredit complainants and whistle-blowers. [Read full article] Tribunal Corruption? Still not happy? You have decided to take it to an outside agency or commision? Does the commision first try to force you into mediation? You refuse and they still try to force you into mediation? This is something that is being sited repeatedly by harassed individuals who take their cases to commisions. After mediation is refused and the case makes it to the tribunal, there have been reports that the outcome of the trial already seemed decided. The tribunal also seems to know far more about your case than they should. Is there more going on at the tribunals than we know? In my experience I believe the answer to be yes. Lawyers Lawyers are not there to hold your hand or show understanding. It nice if you find a lawyer who understands and is sympathetic, but that's not always possible. The lawyers in this focus are going outside of these boundaries, and doing questionable or downright illegal activities. An emerging scenario is complainants reporting lawyers who seem to have the other sides interest at heart and not the complainants. There are even reports of lawyers giving out information to the companies about the harassment targets case. The next thing reported are lawyers trying to force settlements, when refused the lawyers become verbally abusive, angry or backstabbing. Judgement Day The second victimisation individuals endure in the court system. Courts can make legitimate mistakes, or judges just really judge the way they see fit, these reports are outside that realm. The reports involve continued delays in favor of companies, and stretching the length of the trials till the harassment target is unable to continue financially. Broke Bullied Busted The pattern is interference at every stage in the proceedings. When these trials are over with, many individuals find themselves to be broke, in a state of emotional anguish, financially finished, and unable to fight. That is the state of the nation on harassment. This section hopes to bring awareness about these new and emerging trends. In future we hope to post statistics to graph these patterns.