[AusNOG] Sexual Harassment at AUSNOG Industry Events

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Bevan,

 

Well bloody said, I have been fortunate enough to work in places where a
degree of decorum, respect and common decency has always been in place.

 

The sort of behaviour you describe has no place in today's society and I
refuse to work with people who act in such ways. 

 

Kind Regards,

Jim. 

 

 

 

From: AusNOG <ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net> On Behalf Of Bevan Slattery
Sent: Sunday, 30 September 2018 11:23 AM
To: ausnog at ausnog.net
Subject: [AusNOG] Sexual Harassment at AUSNOG Industry Events

 

***NOT FOR REPUBLICATION***

 

Hi everyone,

 

I am writing this email to everyone here because there is a problem within
our industry and it needs to end.

 

Last week at a strategy off-site for one of my businesses we were speaking
to a new (young female) starter about possibly coming to PTC this year.  We
spoke about how insanely busy it is and that it's a great experience unlike
almost anything else.  Then near the end of the conversation we ended up in
a dark place speaking about past issues around sexual harassment and that I
have zero tolerance with such activity.  We were speaking about empowering
our women team members to say "no", to make sure "people know it's just not
acceptable regardless of the position of power the person doing it is -
customer or other".  Confident women that say "no" who don't tolerate that
behaviour seems like the solution.  Then the conversation went darker.

 

I was given examples of sexual harassment at this years AUSNOG.  At Ausnog
my staff were directly targeted with inappropriate messages, inappropriate
approaches and to my shock sexual assault.  People thinking it is somewhat
acceptable to walk up to my staff and grope them.  I'm not going to go into
emotions or what I felt or where my head went.  I am going to short cut this
and help the industry get a ****ing compass.

 

?         When my staff give you their phone number - it is their work phone
number, not an offer for you to flirt with them and try to get them or send
inappropriate pictures

?         When my staff give you their work email address - it is their work
email address, not an offer for you to flirt or harass them

?         If you harass my staff they will tell you, they will escalate to
me and I will talk to your CEO and raise a direct complaint for action

?         If you sexually assault my staff they will tell you, they will
immediately raise it to the event coordinator to seek your expulsion from
the event, they will raise it to me, I will raise it to your CEO and seek to
have you rubbed out of our industry for good

 

>From the discussion this behaviour does NOT just happen at AUSNOG.  It is
still happening at other industry events (PTC/ITW etc.) and usually when
alcohol and a sense of power is involved.  It's really simple.  If you can't
control yourself when drinking, don't drink.  But I've had enough of arming
my female staff with tactics on how to manage the inappropriate behaviour of
others only to find out this stuff still continues.  If this has happened to
you by my staff, the same applies.

 

I am going to write letters to the CEO's of every company whose team members
sexually harassed/assaulted my staff and notify them they have either bad
actors or a bad culture.  I'm not naming names this time around, just arming
them with the knowledge their organisation has had a problem in the past and
needs to re-educate some of their staff around appropriate behaviour.
Moving forward I will be naming names to the CEO's.

 

If you want to stay in this industry then pull your head in and treat
everyone appropriately and if this industry doesn't want to become the next
#metoo meme then the industry leaders need to commit to wiping these grubs
out, regardless of position/organisation.  I'm sure other leaders feel the
same way.  The rot stops.

 

[b]

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ausnog.net/pipermail/ausnog/attachments/20181001/12a153a7/attachment.html>