OPINION: ‘Sensitivity training’ is often a workplace punchline. The joke’s over
Posted November 5, 2014 3:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The notion of workplace sensitivity training has been derided so often and so completely, it’s now nothing but a punchline. Part of the gag is always the New Age mumbo-jumbo spouted by the sensitivity trainer. But at the heart of the comedy is the idea that, in these enlightened times, anybody would need instruction in how not to be sexist or racist or demeaning. Sensitivity training is clearly needless bureaucracy; there’s nobody left who requires it.
The Jian Ghomeshi scandal underscores how workplace training on responding to sexual harassment isn’t superfluous. It’s vital.
Harassment is as bad for business as it is morally abhorrent. It drives talented employees out of companies (studies find 75 to 90% of women leave an employer after an incident), corrodes morale, and spurs absenteeism and low productivity. One estimate suggests a major U.S. corporation will lose close to $7 million to the effects of harassment each year.
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