The role of the workplace in supporting employees experiencing Domestic and Family Violence
[Matt Pronger: Programs Manager, Australia’s CEO Challenge]
If we’re looking at this from a workplace example, if we have a colleague that we’re concerned about, thinking about our role in that situation, I think there’s a lot of us, you would know you’re concerned about someone and you might intuitively have that feeling that you’re concerned about X, Y and Z. They just seem off. Our role then is thinking about actually what we do at that point in time. Because if we do nothing, and the worst case does happen, how have we taken responsibility. As a community or as a workforce, what have we done about that problem. We’ve noticed some signs and symptoms and we haven’t taken any action. So how we can inquire safely. Because we don’t want to expose them either, we don’t want to make them uncomfortable, but actually how we can safely enquire about their safety and wellbeing. So, if you have a direct relationship with that person you feel safe with that person, how you can actually ask them some questions, like we’re talking about, around their wellbeing and whether they are ok or “I’ve noticed something is going on for you”. So, in terms of directly approaching that someone or if you don’t know that person well, is there some else in the office that you know has a close relationship that you could encourage to go check in on that person. So, it doesn’t have to be all on you. It actually could be engaging those around you that you know, “Hey, I know this person is really connected with that person and actually I might check in with them about whether they’re concerned or not”. We’ve got to make sure we’re not spreading a rumour mill here, but it could actually be a more appropriate approach. If you’re a male manager and you’ve got a female officer and you bring her into your office and you shut the door and you start having these kinds of questions, you can how quite quickly she might shut down. So is there someone else that you know who’s safe and supportive, who might actually be a part of this conversation, or could assist you in hosting this conversation with that person, if appropriate. So it doesn’t have to all be on you. It could be a shared responsibility, in fact, in some respects the more engaged we have support services, the more available. Now if we’re concerned and thinking it is domestic and family violence, it’s also going in with some preparation that we know what available in our support service, we know our policies and provision sets, that we actually have some contact details because if they then blind side us and we go “Well I don’t know”. Doing a little bit of our homework there, making sure we know what we can and what we can’t offer as a workforce and as a bystander and what that looks like.
[Jan Breckenridge: Professor and Head of School of Social Sciences
Co-Convenor of Gendered Violence Research Network
University of NSW, Sydney]
It’s a very difficult thing to disclose and it obviously show that they trust you. So acknowledging that it was difficult and that you’re really please that they’ve trusted you is an important first step. From that first step, I would be immediately be asking about their safety. Have they got concerns for their safety now, have they got concerns about anyone else’s safety? And then ask them to tell you a little bit more about how they think it’s affecting work because it’s really important to make it a focused workplace response. It really shouldn’t be a counselling response. It can be empathic and kind and productive without it going over a boundary into counselling and so focusing on what concerns they have about their workforce performance, what concerns they might have about the way in which their team is affected and to just, at all points, ask them how they perceive their situation, what they think will be helpful rather than presuming that we know. But safety is really important and if they indicated that there was any immediate harm then you might need to think about whether you needed to contact your particular security team in an organisation or the police if it was serious enough.
[Matt Pronger: Programs Manager, Australia’s CEO Challenge]
Our whole role in the workplace sense is not to become the specialist support services ourselves, it’s to refer. So, we’re recognising the signs, we’re having the conversations, we’re responding appropriately to this person and then we’re making sure we’re taking them to the specialist referral pathways. What’s available to us in the community, where can we go, what numbers do we have to call to support this person? Particularly in a workforce sense if you’re HR or a leader that we’re not actually rescuing or saving this person or taking whole responsibility ourselves that we are getting the specialists involved and they’re engaging in that services supportively.
