“We also had quite a lot of issues that arose from the 'corona-situation'”

In case of inappropriate behaviour, which way is the way forward: the formal or the informal way? What process does each way kick off, and which people get involved? Interview with Monika Keller working for the ETH Advise & Conciliation Service.

08.04.2021 by Carolin Arndt Foppa

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I trust that most of the D-BSSE members have seen this brochure from the last, the third ETH Respect Campaign, which took place in 2017/2018. I was wondering: what happened since then?

Actually, there were several processes going on in parallel. The brochure is from the Respect Campaign, which was widely seen by everybody. Next to the campaign, there was the development of the regulation, which clearly specified the principles, responsibilities and procedure for dealing with reports of inappropriate behaviour by ETH members. Such a regulation was existing before but not as detailed as we have it now. Some of you might have been involved in the consultation process, which was done very thoroughly in order to make this regulation sound and viable. Eventually, the new regulation came into effect on 1 September 2020. It provides information on how the procedures are if someone experiences or witnesses inappropriate behaviour such as bullying, harassment and discrimination. Basically, there are two main ways: a formal and an informal way. The formal way is to report an incident in writing to the “Reporting Office Conflict Management”, which can also be approached via HR, and the issue will then be dealt with officially by talking to the involved people. But we advise you to first try the informal way. Along this informal way we try to resolve the issue together with the reporting person by consulting and coaching. This is the purpose of the “Respect Office” or “Advice and Conciliation Service Respect», as is the official name now. Talking to one of the Ombudspersons is another option on this informal way that can be taken. Actually, the founding of the “Respect Office” was the second thing that happened in the course of the last Respect Campaign. There existed several consulting services at ETH depending on the topic; for example, I was formerly working at the “Equal Opportunity Office”, where I was responsible for cases of discrimination and sexual harassment and all issues related to gender. This office was merged with the consultation office specialised on bullying and conflict management to form the one-stop office for all issues related to inappropriate behaviour as described in the Respect Code of Conduct. In addition to this internal “Respect Office”, there was also established an external respect office for people who want to consult someone who is not involved in ETH Zurich in any way. The contacts to all services can be found on the respect website.

You just mentioned it: ETH members bring a large variety of topics to your attention (there are issues with the supervisor but also discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment etc.). You keep a record of all these topics, can you tell us which of the topics are prevailing?

Yes, we keep an anonymised statistic of the consultation topics. We sort the issues that come to us by categories, and what we see is that we have a large share of conflicts with supervisors - this is both ways, actually, not only students with supervisors but also supervisors with students or employees. Then we have a large share of conflicts between team members who are more or less on the same level. The other categories include sexual harassment, discrimination, LGBTQIA+, career, pregnancy, and so on. Besides these topics, last year we also had quite a lot of issues that arose from the “corona-situation” when people had to deal with a lot of stress. In turn, some issues have occurred less during the pandemic such as mobbing, stalking, sexual harassment… On the other hand, we were confronted with new phenomena such as posting inappropriate photos in Zoom sessions... This was very new to us, it shows that sexual harassment works also in this virtual context…

When people approach you, are the issues treated confidentially?

Yes. Because we are on the informal level, issues can be treated confidentially. By the way: our service is for everyone: be it someone who thinks he or she was treated in a disrespectful way but also for someone who is not sure whether he or she has done something inappropriate, or people that need support in dealing with such issues in their group. We first look at the problem and the situation and discuss what could be done, who could help, what could be possible solutions. Only thereafter we take action in consent with the person who comes to us and seeks advice. This is in contrast to the option HR has: when you contact HR directly, they are obliged to protect you (in your work environment) and check the situation. For example, if you have an issue with sexual harassment, HR is obliged to take action which normally also includes to talk to the accused person. In contrast, our Respect Office can first consider steps the person can try herself (or himself) and see if the situation improves, and then we can make a plan and take next steps. This is why ETH Zurich encourages people to first try the informal way and see whether the problem can be solved at a low level. If the problem persists, HR can still be involved.

What is being planned next, another “Respect Campaign”?

Yes, another Respect Campaign is planned for fall 2021 across all ETH domains. But right now, it is not clear what it will look like. Currently, the whole topic of respect and good working practice continues to be discussed on the strategic level by the new Executive Board member Julia Dannath.

Thank you very much, Monika, we are looking forward to the services that are currently being set up and the next “Respect Campaign”!