Today all people become victims of harassment in one form or another. Harassment at work is a very hot topic nowadays as lot of women are objects during their work. The chapter is focused on presenting the essence of harassment and how it can take place in a kitchen. The first part discussed harassment and mobbing in the workplace. The methodology part presented a study conducted among women chefs and kitchen staff. The study was conducted through online questionnaire and included 39 respondents. Besides this, an interview with 13 women chefs has been performed. The study aims to understand if there is harassment in the kitchen and what forms it takes. It also aims to understand how women as chefs are perceived in their job positions and how they are harassed. The results show that women chefs have been victims of different forms of harassment in the kitchen.
TopIntroduction
Today all people become victims of harassment in one or another form. Harassment at work is a very hot topic nowadays as lot of women are objects during their work. It has very bad effect on people’s life as it reduces the work satisfaction, increases turnover at work.
The chapter aims at presenting what is harassment, the forms of harassment and mobbying and how it can take place in kitchen. The chapter also aims to find the link between harassment of women chefs in kitchen. It took form of a positivist approach. It includes 13 interviews with women chefs and a study among 39 kitchen workers. It aims to understand how women as chefs are perceived on their job positions in kitchen and how they are discriminated (Strachan, 2021). It presents how harassment is perceived among kitchen staff that took part in the survey.
The chapter starts at first with short introduction on the topic of harassment, types of harassment.
Later in the methodology part is presented the study of women chefs. A questionnaire has been distributed through online platforms to women chefs and kitchen staff. Besides an interview with 13 women chefs have been conducted to understand about what harassment is, what makes them feel bullied at their kitchen, how they perceive their roles.
The problem of harassment has become serious in the last few years. In the academic studies there has been a significant interest towards this problem and the studies show that it is quite popular problem.
For example, the study shows that over 50% of women working on academic positions and staff at universities have experienced any form of sexual discrimination at work (theguardian.com). The study above shows that it has been mainly experienced by women as they became frequently have been felt any type of harassment in the working place. This percent has been significant for women that work in academic environment compared to women working in administrative positions. In this regard, the studies show that the main type that has been reported is sexual harassment as a form of discrimination against other sex. It is supported by data of study of guardian.com. According to it, more than four-fifths of young women in the UK have been become victims of sexual harassment. It is mainly experienced by women from 18-24 years old, 86% which had felt sexual discrimination publicly, whereas 3% did not mention ever such discriminating behavior to have met. 11% of respondents prefer not to answer the question. 71% of women have felt a sexual discrimination, according to the survey (theguardian.com)
The problem of harassment can be seen from many perspectives. The legal definition provided by the Equality Act 2010 harassment defines it is as unpleasant and unwanted behavior directed towards violating an individual’s respect and showing humiliation or disrespect to someone thus forming a hostile and negative for that person.
The Chartered institute of personnel and development discusses harassment as it is involving one or many people and can happen once or many times in a different form of behavior, varying from extreme forms of physical violence, to ignoring someone. The discrimination can be with or without witnesses, online or offline. Every single situation in which is a tension caused by physical or mental violence on somebody is a proof of a harassment.
One of the most studied form of harassment is the sexual harassment. In this regard, the 2018 report, the sexual harassment was considered as a form of discrimination, in term of three categories of behavior as discussed by White & Hardemo (2002).