How to intervene to harassment and inappropriate conduct

If possible, start by explaining the person that their behavior does not seem appropriate and ask them to stop. ​

It’s important to bring up challenges once noticed, even if challenging others' behavior might feel uneasy.​ It might be that the person does not understand that their behavior feels inappropriate to others. Discussing the matter helps us to see situations from other perspectives.

Sometimes the situation might continue or there might be reasons why it isn’t possible to bring up challenges with the person behaving inappropriately. In this cases do not hesitate to ask for help: support is available for you.

If you experience harassment or inappropriate conduct, do not hesitate to take action and ask for help: support is available, and Aalto has clear shared principles and processes for handling these situations. All members of the Aalto community are for their part responsible for the atmosphere and wellbeing in their workplace and studying community.

If you are an employee you can contact for example your own supervisors, HR services, occupational health support, union representatives or harassment and inappropriate conduct contact persons.

If you are a student you can contact one of the following: the manager of academic affairs at your school or the harassment contact person of AYY (contact details below). You can also contact the Aalto study psychologists (student counsellors). More information here.

In all cases and with all questions you can contact Aalto's harassment contact persons by sending email to [email protected]. Do not include sensitive material in the message that is not necessary for the matter (e.g. information about your own or another person's health or family situation). The email address is read only by harassment contact persons. The harassment contact persons can be contacted confidentially and they do not proceed your case without your permission.

Aalto University's harassment contact persons for personnel are Anne Petroff ([email protected]) and Mikko Raskinen ([email protected]). Their role is to support the person who has experienced harassment or inappropriate behaviour or seen/witnessed it and to help to proceed if so wished. Harassment contact persons do not solve any cases instead they inform about different options to proceed.

Harassment contact persons are available to provide approximately 1/2 hour info session at department or unit meetings on the prevention of harassment and inappropriate conduct and Aalto's processes.

Process for clarifying the situation when reporting the experience of inappropriate conduct or harassment

Starting the process

A staff member of the Aalto community experiences harassment or inappropriate conduct by the staff and reports about it to the supervisor, the supervisor's supervisor, or HR. The employer's representative, i.e. the supervisor, together with the school's HR manager, starts the clarification process, which proceeds as described below. If one of the parties is a student, the head of the school's learning services is also involved in the process.

Clarifying the situation (related to staff, the process for students' cases has its own instructions in Learning services)

• Both/all parties are consulted by having discussions separately and, if possible or necessary, also together. Support persons may be involved in the discussions
• Discussions are documented
• It helps if the parties (especially the one who experienced harassment/inappropriate conduct) have documented what happened, when and between whom.

Conclusions and decisions on necessary actions

• In separate meetings, an appropriate and fair solution to the situation is sought in terms of the flow of work (when it is not a matter of serious harassment or inappropriate conduct)
• If the report states that inappropriate conduct, bullying or harassment has occurred, it is made clear to the person guilty of harassment that the activity must stop and/or depending on the seriousness of the case, a notice or warning is given. Very serious cases may result in termination of employment and/or reporting to the police.
• The conclusions and measures taken based on the discussions, as well as the necessary instructions and agreements related to work and behavior change, are documented. It is also documented when and how the implementation and effects of the agreed matters are monitored.