Personal Essay: Opening a Dialogue on Psychological Safety through the Lens of Sexual Misconduct in the Canadian Military
This content contains references to sexual misconduct in the military and in the workplace and may be triggering to some readers. Please read with care.
This is a very tough subject to write about. It’s been an issue in our workplaces and our lives since the beginning, but it’s only in recent years that we have permission to talk about it in public spaces. Certainly, in many workplaces it’s still something you acknowledge in closed conference rooms or in very quiet tones. I am all too familiar with the panicky gut-wrench that happens when sexual misconduct comes up as a corporate training topic or a discussion at a dinner party (it happens). It’s hard for the people who have been victimized by it because it can feel re-traumatizing, like you’re expected to play defence and provide details to justify your position when so much about what we now know points to the fact that often the details are very murky. It’s a challenging subject for allies, too, and people who are just trying their best to show up at work and be enthusiastic and respectful, day after day. This type of subject matter is prone to ignite debates that quickly divide people and polarize, dramatically. It’s emotional, understandably. But, I want to tackle it through a specific lens because I believe the more we openly (but cautiously and compassionately) communicate about sexual misconduct in our society and our workplaces, the less stigmatized these topics become and the easier it is for people who are suffering to speak up.
To contextualize, the findings of an investigative report on sexual misconduct in the Canadian military (published six years ago) recently prompted an apology from the Canadian defence minister, as well as many other high ranking political officials. The recent headlines around the matter have been explosive, with eleven senior military leaders implicated with sexual misconduct. Some are under investigation and some are facing charges. It’s been devastating to the women, non-binary individuals and men who were victimized.
What should stem from this very public deconstruction of one of Canada’s oldest and most entrenched institutions is a mass examination of our cultural values when it comes to creating a work environment that is safe for everyone. There is so much to learn from the findings from the report and from the voices of those who were brave enough to lend their experiences to the effort to bring the misconduct to light. Lessons about accessibility, empathetic leadership, allyship and leader accountability should be taken to heart. According to the report more than a quarter of women in the Canadian military have been sexually assaulted during their careers. Just 23% of those women reported what had happened, and only 7% filed reports with the military police of the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. More than 40% of the 19,000 claims submitted to the sexual misconduct class action suit were from men. No gender identity is unscathed.
Institutionalized power dynamics and misguided cultural beliefs are at the core of the systemic sexual misconduct issue, in the military and beyond. When people believe they are powerless with no control over their situation, typically, they don’t speak up when there is a problem. And, when people do speak up about a problem and they are dismissed or interrogated, they learn it’s easier to keep quiet.
As a Western society, we have thousands of years of experience of dismissing women’s voices and marginalizing communities that don’t conform to the ideals of the demographic with the most power. The idea has been reinforced for generations through works of literature and art that have shaped our contemporary cultural canon. One of the first appearances of it was in Homer’s The Odyssey. Telemachus (the son) commands his mother, Penelope (the Queen), to (in more elegant language), “Go to bed, men are talking.” This theme has persisted into modern day, real politics. One recent example happened in 2017 when Elizabeth Warren began to read a letter written by Coretta Scott King during a debate before the US Senate. She was screamed down and excluded from the debate. The next day, Bernie Sanders read the letter, without screaming or exclusion. He did it to be an ally, which is wonderful. But the situation highlighted how far we still have to go in accepting people of all gender identities as having agency, authority… of being capable of leadership and wielding power. Women, non-binary and LGBT+ individuals still face major gaps, both in wage and in their ability to progress in their careers. And, career progression and the wage gap aren’t even the most harmful impacts of the suppression of voices and workplace inequality, as is evidenced by the coverage of the sexual misconduct investigation into the Canadian military.
I have been on the receiving end of sexual misconduct in the workplace, at one point for several years on end. I have done my best to show up for coworkers as an ally through similar experiences. And, through all my consulting work in employee and culture strategy, I strive to advocate for flattening hierarchies, calibrating employee experiences for psychological safety and belonging and embedding open and closed communication channels to encourage honest dialogue between employees and leaders. But, these are tactics. The work that must be done to eradicate these issues in the workplace (and I don’t say that lightly, but because I believe we can eradicate it) will take much longer and require a focused effort from allies across organizations, from all backgrounds and experiences. We need to rebuild our organizations’ people structures and support with inclusivity at the core. Representation and vocal change advocates are essential.
This was a difficult disclosure, for me. I spent most of my career trying to pretend my experience didn’t happen. Or, being fearful that opening up about it would forever taint my professional identity and make it difficult for me to advance in my career.
But, now, I feel compelled to leverage my experience and expertise in human capital strategy to offer some advice to organizations…
- Invest in flexibility at work. It’s not just about giving workers more “work from home days”. More robust flexible work options give employees more control over their physical surroundings and who they interact with. This can be extremely meaningful if an employee is feeling uncomfortable and needs to put boundaries in place.
- When an employee opens up about a sexual misconduct issue, listen with care and don’t invalidate their experience. Avoid language like, “we need as many details as possible,” and “you need to be very sure of this.” Of course, if an investigation is ongoing, everyone will be asked to give additional details. But in the initial conversations with the employee, just make sure they know they are heard and believed.
- Create an open channel of communication to employee relations with a team tasked with responsiveness. It can be incredibly destabilizing to send a report and have to wait a long period of time to hear back. Treat it with high priority and make sure the reporting employee is contacted by a crisis-trained professional within 24 hours.
- On an individual level, practice allyship. We are all walking around this earth with inherent biases and traumas that shape our perspective. It’s part of being human. You can’t control how everyone else will act, but you can choose to speak up for those more vulnerable that you.
You can choose to ‘signal boost’ coworkers who’s voices are going unheard.
Choose to check in with someone if you see something that makes you uneasy.
Choose to not indulge in harmful gossip or speculation about people who you work with.
Equality in our workplaces and society will happen as a result of all the smaller choices we make to advocate for each other and to live inclusively.
To close, I want to recognize the people who broke their silence and spoke up to bring the epidemic of sexual misconduct in the Canadian military to light. Many of those individuals disclosed before that and been dismissed, some even from their jobs. It takes so much courage to stand against a powerful establishment, with little hope of making change, only in service of doing what is right. There are lessons for everyone to take away from this watershed moment in the history of the Canadian military.
When it comes to the way we treat employees, hold leaders accountable and embed values around trust, inclusion and psychological safety into our organizations, this is a call to action to begin the process of calibrating and re-building workplace culture for openness, tolerance and positive change.
