Photo: Communications Office
This page contains information to support employees if you have been subjected to behaviour or speech that
- violates your personal integrity
- makes you feel unsafe and vulnerable, or
- harms you
Talk to someone about what has happened
If you feel victimised, it could be good to talk to someone about the events that have occurred. This someone could be your manager, a colleague or someone else that you trust.
If you have been subjected to undesirable behaviour, you may feel scared, angry, worried or unsafe. You may find it difficult to stop thinking about the events, or react by repressing what has occurred.
Talking about your experience is the first step towards recovery. It may also help you remember and put your experience into words.
Professional support and counselling
If you are in the need of professional support and counselling, you can turn directly to the University’s occupational health service, Feelgood. You do not need prior approval from your manager or supervisor to book an appointment.
The University Chaplaincy also offers counselling for everyone at Umeå University, regardless of philosophy or religious beliefs.
Tell your line manager
If an employee feels subjected to an undesirable behaviour at work or is in need of support, it is the manager who has the authority to act and take measures.
This is one of many reasons why you should contact your line manager and inform the manager of what has happened as soon as you feel ready.
It becomes more difficult to rectify a situation or take measures the longer it takes before your employer is made aware.
If the abusive behaviour you have experienced could be regarded as harassment, sexual harassment or victimisation, your manager must initiate an investigation.
Write down and document what has happened
Do not put off documenting the occurrence. Write down what has happened and when and make sure to save any potential text messages and emails. This will simplify for the investigation. It also helps you remember times, places and other details that will strengthen your description of the events.
If your manager has subjected you to undesirable behaviour
If your manager is the person subjecting you to undesirable behaviour, you can either
Suspected criminal offences must be reported to the Police
If you have been subjected to a criminal act, it must always be reported to the Police and investigated by the judicial system.
This applies regardless of the person conducting the act is a student, employee or an external party.
Report a crime (the Swedish Police Authority)
Olika typer av brott A-Ö (description of various types of crimes, by the Swedish Police Authority)
Brottsofferguiden (a crime victim guide by the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority)
Mark against undesirable behaviour
Sexual harassment refers to conduct of a sexual nature that violates a person’s dignity.
Harassment refers to conduct that violates a person’s dignity and that is associated with one or several of the seven grounds of discrimination referred to in the Discrimination Act.
It is up to you, as the injured party, to make the call if behaviour is undesirable or abusive.
But this also means that the person exposing you to such behaviour needs to be made aware that you experience the behaviour as abusive. According to the Discrimination Act, behaviour is only regarded as harassing or sexually harassing if the person exposing you to such behaviour has previously been made aware that you experience the person’s behaviour as abusive.
Some behaviour, however, is so evidently abusive that it can be assumed that the accused party must have realised that it was abusive without you telling them. This could be if someone projects racist or misogynistic comments towards someone else, if other insulting or abusive expressions are used, or if other forms of groping or assault occur.
In such cases, the victim or the workplace does not need to mark the behaviour as undesirable for it to be investigated as harassment or sexual harassment.
Support in talking to the accused party
To mark against and say no may feel both awkward and uncomfortable. This particularly applies if the person conducting the undesirable behaviour is someone of higher rank.
When you talk to the person who has subjected you to the undesirable behaviour, you can bring along your manager, a colleague or another person you have confidence in to the meeting.
You can also choose to put your message in writing and send it in an email.
Investigating harassment
If a manager is informed that a member of staff feels subjected to harassment, sexual harassment or victimisation, the University is obliged to investigate the circumstances.
The purpose of the investigation is to establish what has happened and stop the undesirable behaviour.
When Umeå University investigates and reaches formal decisions, work is based on procedures adopted by the Vice-Chancellor in 2015:
Handläggningsordning vid diskriminering, trakasserier och kränkningar [Procedures regarding discrimination, harassment and abuse, not translated]
The person who is singled out as potentially being guilty of harassment, sexual harassment or victimisation must not be judged guilty until the University has conducted an investigation and made an impartial assessment.
Reporting procedure
The most common and often most appropriate way of initiating an investigation is that the victimised employee informs their manager. You can also submit a written report to the registry.
Investigation procedure
When an investigation is commenced, the manager with work environment responsibilities, makes an initial assessment of whether the occurrence is to be investigated as victimisation, harassment or sexual harassment.
The assessment and the nature of the occurrence determine who is responsible for the investigation: this is either the manager or, in some cases, when the case concerns harassment and sexual harassment, a legal officer.
When an investigation begins, the manager responsible for the work environment
If your manager needs support during the process, he can contact Stödteam för trygg arbets- och studiemiljö (STAR (Support team for safe working and study environment)). The team's task is to support managers and HR with, among other things, guidance, investigation and propositions of possible work environment measures while the investigation is ongoing and after the investigation is completed.
Read more about Support team for a safe work and study environment (Swedish only)
When a case of victimisation, harassment or sexual harassment is being investigated, the person subjected to the undesirable behaviour will leave a statement of the events.
When talking to the investigator, you can take a union representative with you, or someone else you trust.
The accused party will be able to read the statement and respond to it from their perspective. It may also be necessary to gather information from other people who have made observations or can provide information.
When all parties have been allowed to provide their perspective of events, an assessment will be made if the occurrence can or cannot be regarded as victimisation, harassment or sexual harassment.
Regardless of which assessment is made, the manager responsible for the work environment will decide on measures to improve the work environment. What measures are appropriate is based on the conclusions reached in the assessment.
Processing sensitive information in the investigation
An investigation means that sensitive information will be processed.
As a standard, information from the investigation may only be made available to the investigator, the person subjected to the undesirable behaviour and the accused party, and to other university employees who need information to conduct their work and potential witnesses.
Cases of victimisation, harassment or sexual harassment must always be documented and registered in the archives. This means that documentation becomes official documents that the general public can request copies of from Umeå University according to the principle of public access to official documents.
If someone requests an official document from the University, a confidentiality assessment is to be made before the copy is disclosed.
If you wish to remain anonymous
If you, after having been subjected to undesirable behaviour, wish to be anonymous, the University is still obliged to investigate and prevent further harassment from reccuring.
However, it may be difficult to take suitable measures as the accused party will not be given the chance to respond to the allegations.
Neither can the University decide on and implement any individualised measures. In such cases, the University can only implement general preventive measures such as information and staff training activities.
Potential preventive and punitive measures
Regardless of the assessment is that victimisation, harassment or sexual harassment has taken place or not, the manager responsible for the work environment will decide on measures to improve the work environment.
What measures are appropriate is based on the conclusions reached in the assessment.
If the investigation shows that some form of harassment, or some other form of misconduct, has taken place, the manager in charge must take individualised measures, which for instance could be a clarifying conversation.
The University may also decide on preventive measures to avoid staff from being subjected to similar events in the future.
If the victimisation or harassment is regarded as severe, or if it continues despite the measures introduced, the case must be reported to the Staff Disciplinary Board (PAN) or to the Student Disciplinary Board.
These boards have the authority to decide on individualised punitive measures due to staff or student misconduct.
Punitive measures decided by the Staff Disciplinary Board can be
- a formal warning according to the Employment Protection Act
- suspension
- relocation
- termination of employment.
If the investigation shows that occurred events are not in violation of the law
If the investigation shows that occurred events are not to be regarded as victimisation, harassment or sexual harassment, or if events cannot be elucidated, the manager must notify all relevant parties.
Even when the investigation leads to such conclusions, work environment measures can still be decided on and implemented.