Vive president of film studio 21st Century Fox, Claire Schmidt, is stepping down from her position to launch her new startup, AllVoices, a website that to help employees anonymously report harassment, bias, and discrimination directly to their CEO or company board.
Employees will answer questions that are aimed at identifying the problem and encourage bystanders to report bad behavior. Right now, many victims feel as though their reports are not anonymous and that human resources department is only to benefit the company.
Before working at 21st Century Fox, Schmidt worked for Thorn, a nonprofit that works with tech companies and law enforcement to combat online child sex trafficking. Susan Fowler, the former Uber engineer whose blog post about sexual harassment and sexism in the workplace opened a floodgate for stories of harassment in tech, will serve as an adviser.
I think this is a great way for employees to feel safe within their company and report incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination as well as for companies to be educated about the things that go on within their company. Hopefully, this will help a lot of people who are going through these issues to get help and resolve the problem.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/15/technology/allvoices-sexual-harassment-reporting-tool/index.html
Why sexual harassment keep happening in the work place. A big reason is that, people are afraid to tell. They are afraid of others known that she has be sexual harassed by some unknown guy. Even if she decide to tell the public that someone assaulted her, she has to think about the possibility that she would be threatened by the guy who assaulted her. There are just so many reasons make people afraid to tell. But the truth is, if one or two people stand out, others will follow. The other way is that, people so this anonymously so that the person who has been assaulted would feel she is under protection. No one will know that she has been assaulted and she will not be threatened either. So personally, I really like the idea of this anonymous startup in the workplace, and it will work against the sexual harassment problems effectively.
In the past few weeks stories of of sexual harassment have flooded the media. From political figures to Hollywood stars many have been accused of sexually harassing women and once one women speaks out several others come forward. This is exactly the issue Claire Schmidt is trying to solve. In many cases women or men for that matter are scared or ashamed to speak out. It takes a ton of courage but once one of them spoke out several others followed. It can be extremely awkward to speak out which keeps many from doing it. I think there is huge potential for this startup in workplace all over the world. The fact you know it is anonymous will stop the fear individuals have with coming forward and addressing any bias, harassment, or discrimination that takes place in the work place.
-Jack Subers
I was not aware of this issue in the workplace. I thought most companies would let you report anonymously about any events that were to happen in the workplace. But I guess you are right about how anonymous it might really be. Anything that makes the workplace feel more “safe” and professional is going to benefit you and your fellow co-workers. So I am glad to hear they are taking more steps to help these hardworking people. But compared to what the system is now, how much can you really change to make it more anonymous and discreet. Instead of walking in an office what can you now email or drop a note in a bin? I am not sure how much you can do now, but like I said anything that helps the workers is a benefit for the company.