Woman sparks debate after sharing blunt sexual harassment training she took at work

A woman has sparked a debate online after revealing some blunt advice -- including men getting told not to “sexually harass people” -- that workers at her company received during a sexual harassment training.

In a recent video posted to TikTok, Hamsa, @binoloves, detailed how she received the training as an employee based in New York City.

The clip began with a presentation that claimed that “60 per cent of male managers say they are uncomfortable working alone with a woman out of fear of complaints of sexual harrasment”.

The presentation continued by encouraging men not to discriminate women in workplace before saying that men should “not sexually harass” the opposite sex in order to avoid harassment complaints.

“Men: Do not avoid working with women because you’re afraid of sexual harrasment complaints,” the presentation’s voice said, along with the text in the slide. “That is gender discrimination. To avoid sexual harrasment complaints, do not sexually harass people.”

According to Hamsa’s video, these parts of the training were slides 69 and 70 out of a 164 slide presentation.

She also jokingly asked what could be gained from the two parts of the presentation, writing in her video’s caption: “So kings and queens, kingzoms and queenzems, and all other beautiful creatures, what did we learn today??”

As of 11 July, the clip has more than 1.2m views and many viewers in the comments expressing their disappointment over men having to be specifically told not to sexually harass people.

“Sad that men need to be told this,” one wrote, while another said: “You can feel the ‘I can not believe we have to say this’ in his voice.”

Other people were appalled by the fact men have had fears over working with women due to sexual harrasment claims.

“The fear is even funnier because of the countless cases where a female employee came forward and was silenced & punished by her own company/HR,” one wrote.

“Men that are ‘scared’ of false claims have a guilty conscience, there’s no reason to worry if you don’t perpetrate,” another said.

However, some people defended the presentation, noting that false sexual harrasement claims for can still be issues in the work places.

“You guys are missing the point,” one wrote. “They’re afraid of false accusations because yes, they do actually happen a lot.”

“It’s an understandable fear, even if there’s no proof of any kind, just the accusation (even if proven false) can have major repercussions,” another viewer said.

Hamsa also attached the link to the sexual harrasment training that she took in the comment section of her video.

According to the New York State Department, “every employer in New York State is required to provide employees with sexual harassment prevention training”.

Trainings must “be interactive” and “include an explanation of sexual harassment consistent with guidance issued by the Department of Labour in consultation with the Division of Human Rights”.