Guest blog: Carole Anders on best practice in the workplace.
Happy new year to all and I hope 2025 brings happiness, excitement, and joy to all, personally as well as professionally.
It is about how we can keep ourselves out of trouble in the workplace that I want to write. Sadly, we at Cairn heard of some seriously poor conduct prior to going into the panto season and we had some concerns that there might be members out there who could encounter this behaviour and be uncertain of the correct way to deal with it.
Unfortunately, our profession can normalise conduct that would be unacceptable in other workplaces. Due to the nature of our work we are often forced into a kind of false intimacy that doesn’t happen anywhere else. Think of quick changes in the wings, people shoe-horned into dressing rooms together, the physical contact required in a dance number far less a love scene; it can blur lines and cause discomfort and too often the person feeling awkward is wary of speaking up about it because it’s generally put down to banter, par for the course or ‘everybody does it’.
I don’t think it’s okay, and I really don’t think you should put up with it, so here is a quick reminder of how you can keep yourself and your colleagues safe and secure at work.
Firstly, it’s important to remember that, while our industry is less bound by the conventions that would apply to workers in an office, factory or shop, we are still in a professional workplace and many of those same rules do apply. For instance, being on time. That means you should be in the room, appropriately dressed and ready to work at the start time, not wandering in half asleep with a coffee in hand and looking for a quick chat. You might not be pulled up for it in the first instance but you can bet it’s being noted and it could come back to haunt you.
Next, please don’t bring your personal baggage into work. We all have things going on at home but we’re in the business of entertainment and your colleagues are not there to provide group therapy. If you’re having problems that are affecting your work, you should make that known to your SM and director privately. They can make provisions but the time for that conversation is before the start of rehearsals or as soon as the problem is apparent.
Personal hygiene is a tricky subject to broach so turn up clean and in clean clothes every day. Please do bring your manners to work. Please and thank you go a very long way to making the day happy and drama free.
We are all entitled to work without fear of discrimination or harassment. According to The Equality Act (2010) you cannot be discriminated against on grounds of; Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Marriage or Civil Partnership, Pregnancy or Maternity, Sex, Race, Religion or Belief & Sexual orientation.
I’m in my sixties now so if I was constantly the butt of jokes about my age, ability to manage my job, comments about being beyond fanciable age to the point that I dread going into work every day, I would have a legitimate basis to claim discrimination on the grounds of age. It might be banter to some, but if it makes me unhappy and affects my ability to do my job it has crossed a line. Discrimination doesn’t have to be deliberate to be against the law. It just needs have a deleterious impact on the victim and if inaction on the part of the ‘management’ can be proven a company could be in very serious trouble. If you have a situation like this you should speak to the director or stage manager and ask them to help you to control the situation. Oh, and keep a diary too, there’s nothing like detailed evidence to make people take a complaint seriously.
Incidentally, there is also protection for women going through menopause which is finally being recognised as a health issue. If the symptoms are serious enough it could also be classed as a disability which leads us into the second category. Disability is an umbrella term covering all manner of illnesses and conditions. If you have made your employer aware of your condition and how it affects you on a daily basis and they have agreed to accommodate you and your needs then they cannot later change their minds or give you grief over it. I truly hope this doesn’t happen but, human nature being what it is and the time pressure that mounts as we reach Tech Week or opening night can make even the nicest people behave poorly.
You can read the Equality Act here to help you decide whether you may or may not have a case. I would urge you to talk to the people in the room in the first instance. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t realize they’re upsetting others or that the language they use on a particular subject is not acceptable. If there is a person in the company who is behaving in an over familiar way or who habitually attempts to separate someone from the group do not let it happen. If you are the person being invited, request that the chat happens in the rehearsal room near others, or that you bring a union rep or another person with you. Politely point out that you are uncomfortable with the request and try to agree on an alternative. Closed doors are a danger to both parties in the room. Allegations can be made and reputations ruined due, at best, to misunderstandings or, worst of all, actual misconduct. Make sure people know where you are and how long you expect to be there and ask someone to come get you if that time is exceeded. Do not allow yourself to be placed away from the door & ask that the door be left ajar so that you can make a quick exit if necessary. Always take your mobile phone with you in case you need help. If you see this behaviour as an onlooker, do whatever it takes to keep your colleague safe. In extreme cases be the person who makes a fuss, insist on being on the room and make sure these situations are reported. The more we know about this behaviour and those who indulge in it, the more we can prepare our members for dealing with or avoiding it.
Finally, don’t be that sleazy person. Don’t be over-familiar with your colleagues, don’t engage in flirtatious banter or use sexualised language. Don’t offer hugs where they are not wanted and really don’t make comments on the appearance of other people. You are at work, the job is transitory and will be over before you know it but your reputation will precede you everywhere you go from that job on and maybe forever, so make sure it’s the reputation you want, not the one you regret. I have to say that in all my thirty odd years of working on this industry I have only come across nasty behaviour a couple of times and it wasn’t aimed at me. I did protest and it didn’t go down well, but seeing a middle-aged man suddenly drop his trousers whilst dancing with a young girl at a wrap party did not make me laugh at all and I don’t care who thought I was being a prude. So please, look after yourselves and one another and always remember we are here if you need a chat, advice or help to move matters onto a more serious footing.
Meantime, happy 2025 and here’s hoping we meet in some safe and happy rehearsal room.
Carole Anders is a Cairn committee member and has worked as an actor across stage, film and television since 1996.
