Harassment in hospitality Industry :
Harassment is any form of humiliation /offend intentionally or unintentionally. Hospitality industry has a very bad reputation of sexual harassment. More than 80% people have experienced harassment in their hospitality work place which is globally the highest.
It can be from co-worker or from guest . Discrimination and sexual harassment are very common in hotel work- place. In discrimination a person is harassed based on gender and racial where he/she is insulted or made joke for his gender,skin colour while, in sexual harassment he/she is harassed physically or made unwanted code of sexual nature . Sometime we may see psychological harassment / power harassment which is not common now days with staffing duties being delegated to Human resource department. Harassment culture is dominating hospitality since from beginning.
Harassment affects achievement. It is also the primary cause for many people to their their job. It reduce productivity and create negative impact in business environment. Hospitality industry ranks number one in harassment cases However, all harassment are not brought into action as many employees are afraid to tell or just don't want to remember it.
There are various factors that influence harassment. Usually hospitality staff has to work unusual hour round the clock with attractive short clothes and boozes around in different outlets like night club, bars, guest room , casinos . Due to wide variety of intoxicating beverage available in these outlets sometime guest may misbehave / over stepped and sometimes co-worker also may behave.
Majority of people working are young with young blood. So, along with guest harassment, assault, discrimination, negative comments are also very common.
Short hotel uniforms are often, common for female servers in night club, bars,restaurant, housekeeping department which cause drunk guest further to over stepped. Sometimes it may attract co-workers also so work environment should be made very safe.
This issue is very common to all department staff but usually female attendant, servers are more vulnerable. It should be immediately brought into action or else you may face more each day. Sometime managers are also responsible for psychological harassment. Strict rules are required to prevent harassment.
If the guest harasses employee then, hotel will be liable. So Hotels need to handle this issue carefully ensuring equity among both guest and employee & justice for staff ensuring reputation of property as before. similarly, there should be proper awareness and policies. Most hotel directly fires staff if they are being reported for serious harassment . Hostel guests are also handed over to police in case they, over stepped. Human resource department is working hard to create harassment free work place. It will also help in building positive environment with good property reputation.
Positive environment is very essential for motivation thus, harassment free environment also helps in fulfilling social, security needs of Maslow Hierarchy need theory. Moreover, boost performance and increase team work. Every managers should be aware about potential harassment. It should be taken with care and immediate action should be taken. Staff if faced any harassment from co-workers, managers , owner, guest should complain immediately to Human resources / managers / police / station / hospitality union depending upon situation.
Support is needed for such staff. You should not further bully them and drop their confidence level. Some staff may also report harassment to retaliate, to gain attention or to increase salary through compensation therefore, any isolated spaces should be well monitored and employee background history checking should be made compulsory during recruitment and selection .Organization culture should also focus on respect for each other.
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