Journalists, executives, writers recount tales of workplace harassment

A 27-year-old woman died by suicide on July 17, in Ghaziabad, alleging workplace harassment. The police have said that the woman, identified as Shivani Tyagi, had consumed poison to kill herself, and left behind a five-page long suicide note, where she accused her colleagues of bullying and harassment. 

Shivani used to work as a Relationship Manager at an Axis Bank branch in Noida. Following the incident, her family filed an FIR at the Nandgram Police Station against her colleagues claiming that she was harassed by them, through constant bullying and body-shaming. According to the FIR, the family has placed the blame on three of her colleagues.

The 27-year-old consumed poison on July 12 and was taken to Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, where she breathed her last. 

Shivani, allegedly, had a couple of disputes with her colleagues over their inappropriate behaviour, and according to the family, she had complained to her seniors as well. However, nobody took a stand for her and was advised to remain silent. Consequently, she handed in her resignation letter in frustration but the senior officials did not accept it and sent her a termination letter on July 12. Her brother, Gaurav Tyagi, alleged that it was the termination alongside the constant bullying that led her to take her own life. 

Presently, the Ghaziabad Police has arrested her direct senior and sales manager at the branch, Mohammed Akram, in a case of abetment to suicide.

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The case sheds light on the constant workplace harassment faced by multiple office workers across multiple fields in the country. To put matters into perspective, harassment in India comes in the form of reprimanding of employees for the most minimal of offences, bias because of gender, unwarranted and long working hours without any monetary benefits or compensation. More often than not, the employees are expected to work for longer and work according to the whims of the upper tier of authority by hook or crook. 

To put these concerns into perspective, Patriot spoke to some people who have faced excessive harassment at their workplaces on a continuous basis. 

Atika Sayeed highlighted the pain of being a part of a male dominated space, especially through the lens of religious bigotry. 

“There was a senior who was well connected with the upper echelons, so he would keep texting me at night. We did not work in an office space since it was work from home and I was an intern. He got my phone number and kept texting me about how I was and all that in the beginning. But, later, he started asking me if I was down for a late-night sexting session. I was very surprised and equally horrified. I turned him down. Then, he would question my religious identity because my partner belonged to a different religion. It did not end there since I did not receive any kind of support from the workplace itself. Moreover, they would also delay my stipend,” she said. 

Abantika Banerjee, a marketing executive, also witnessed such instances of harassment in one of her former workplaces where the branch director would ask her to massage his legs and would also insult her in front of the entire room. 

“I was working with a local fashion brand. I had to work for overly long hours for only Rs 2,000 per month. I had joined the place because I needed some experience and he also needed help with growing the brand. However, things took turn for the worse when he would keep asking me to massage his legs or his hands and whenever I would refuse, he would tell me to exit the cabin,” she said.  

“There have also been instances when I had coloured hair and he would grab an end and start playing with it, calling them ‘pompoms’, especially in front of models and other workers. He also reprimanded me for wearing heels, saying that it was ‘too distracting’. The abuse, however, was not limited to me but also a few models and interns. He would start flirting with them when they’d come and offer them the work according to how pretty the candidate was.” 

Amarabati Bhattacharyya, a working journalist, highlighted the extent to which harassment in news organisations is so sustained and normalised to a degree. 

“Nobody has ever revolted against him,” she said. 

Amarabati, at her former place of work, had been reprimanded multiple times for the most minimal offence, which normally would not be considered so. 

According to her, the boss had made it a habit to scream at others every day, keeping them on the edge of their seats. 

“When I was working there, I once had my feet up on the chair and was sitting cross-legged. He called me to scream at me, saying that others had recorded me. He kept telling me to send in my resignation letter, and he would do the same with others as well. Moreover, every day we would have a review meeting at 9 AM in the morning and the entire meeting would involve him screaming at one person or the other because the page views were not high enough and for some reason that responsibility fell on the reporters. Funnily, he was not a part of the editorial board but the business head who had been given charge,” she said. 

Mohsina Malik, a freelance journalist, also complained about the long working hours and bullying she had to experience from her colleaques. 

“Every other day we would have to work for 12-14 hours, without any sense of gratitude from the higher-ups. There was no work-life balance and it got tiresome after some time. Moreover, there were moments when jokes were cracked by my peers and higher ups regarding my gender, and my place of origin. They would always make nasty comments regarding the fact that I am a Kashmiri woman, although my birthplace holds a special place in my heart. It was extremely insensitive and it happened almost always. I eventually left the place of work around six months ago and things have been much better,” she said. 

Even male employees like Jaywant Singh, who works at a publishing house, highlighted how he had been reprimanded for pitching ideas. 

“My boss never liked my pitches for some reason. I used to pitch ideas but they would not just get rejected but would be followed up with a barrage of insults and loud screams. I did not know how to react. After a point in time, I just got very frustrated and stopped brainstorming. I do not know why but he still kept screaming at me,” he said.