I have a small youtube channel to mentor people who want to get into UX design and when I was just starting out I worked in toxic environments and put up with things I shouldn't have. I worked with this one much older male who told me I was really talented but then became very possessive about wanting to see me out of work and spend time with me and call me, later on he asked me if I had feelings for him and if I ever thought about running away with him. I had other small things happen in my career but I wanted to make content for young women about the mistakes I made and I want to talk about it and I don't know how. Can someone give me advice?
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3 Comments
3 Comments
Anonymous
02/09/21 at 10:15PM UTC
I'm so sorry to hear about your past experiences with sexual harassment, Rachael, and really admire you for wanting to share. I'd recommend ensuring that you warn audiences before they engage with the content, especially as the topic can be triggering for some audiences.
I think you can approach this in a few ways. Whether you want to share your personal experience is a difficult choice — you can come from a personal standpoint or take a more removed, informational tone. It depends on who you're trying to reach and what impact you want to have. Wishing you the best!
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aspoonmore
61
leader of strategy, transformation & culture
02/10/21 at 12:46PM UTC
I also admire your desire to support young women in their careers, providing a forum to discuss harassment in the workplace. As a young engineer in manufacturing plants, I was the often the only woman, and barking was a big part of my daily conversation (yes, the men barked and howled at me) - fortunately I worked with colleagues - both men and women - who helped me process and make light of the situation as a survival tactic. The conversation that worked best in these situations was an open consideration of Intent vs Impact - how the Intent may have been one thing, the Impact was different or perhaps more longstanding. Perhaps this is a framework to consider for your site.
I would suggest that your conversation/ coaching site related to harassment might be best hosted separately from the UX Design mentoring site, as each topic area can then address the needs of each community; of course, just a suggestion - shape the channel to suit your passion - you have much to offer!
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Katrina McNair
2.69k
Site Director and Online Educator
02/15/21 at 1:24PM UTC
Hello Rachael,
I'm so sorry to hear that you dealt with some sexual harassment during your working career. I have also dealt with the same with unwanted physical touching from a male co -worker when I was in my twenties. He didn't except no for an answer and I had to talk to my mom about what to do because I became afraid of him and going to work.
It's a wonderful idea that you want to spread awareness about sexual harassment for women. I also agree with what the previous comments that it would be a good idea to separate from the mentoring website since this topic is more sensitive. I understand that you will be mentoring women on how to handle situations with sexual harassment but you will be dealing with different mental states of people and it's best to either create a separate mentoring section through the same website or create a completely separate website for this particular topic. I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Katrina
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