A reader writes:
I (a lady) travelled on my own to a work-related convention and encountered some unhealthy conduct on the flight. A fast search on AAM indicated many readers requested questions associated to work-related journeys with people throughout the similar firm. How about with people from one other firm? Aside from ignoring and strolling away, what could be your take?
A tech-related convention was in Las Vegas. At the least 90% of the individuals on my fully-booked flight had been heading to the identical occasion. (By the sight of company-branded swags and speaking to people within the line-up, it’s not onerous to determine the place the oldsters had been heading.) An anti-harassment coverage in writing has been in place for the occasion, with the very best type of punishment being everlasting expulsion from the occasion.
The individual on the window seat and I, who had the aisle seat, informed one another what we do and the place we work. Many of us on the flight did the identical. The flight was virtually 4 hours from the east coast. My neighbor made anti-mask, racial, and sexual remarks. I informed him the remarks weren’t welcomed and ignored the remarks that adopted. Then he used his knee to regulate my tray desk and handled me like somebody who didn’t perceive English. He additionally gestured that he needed to go to the restroom a minimum of eight occasions (sure I counted). When he returned to his seat, he purposely bumped my physique. He additionally requested for further alcohol in the course of the flight, however the flight attendant refused to present him the additional serving.
When the flight was prepared for the passengers to disembark, I picked up my belongings shortly and left. I by no means noticed this individual in the course of the occasion once more.
For the reason that conduct didn’t happen on the convention, I can’t report it to the organizers. Though the journey is part of work, I can’t report it to my office as a result of the unruly neighbor doesn’t work for my employer. This individual wasn’t violent or visibly drunk so others couldn’t see. Messaging this individual’s employer’s HR wouldn’t yield any favorable outcomes and is perhaps inviting him to retaliate.
Yeah, there aren’t nice choices right here. The perfect one in all probability would have been to speak to a flight attendant in the course of the flight and see in the event you could possibly be moved, though I understand it’s too late for that now.
It’s not fully true that conferences with anti-harassment insurance policies aren’t occupied with conduct exterior the convention — in the event you’d been harassed by a fellow convention attendee on the resort bar after a day of workshops, for instance, most convention organizers would wish to learn about that, or even when it had occurred in a restaurant throughout city that you just had each ended up in whilst you had been on the town for the occasion. However you’re proper that the airplane was fairly far afield from that. That mentioned, relying on how flagrant this man’s remarks had been, it’s attainable that they’d nonetheless fall below the convention’s coverage, significantly if he recognized himself as a fellow attendee.
Past that, although, you’re proper that there’s not a lot recourse; that is extra like encountering an ass within the wild than encountering one in a piece setting.