Transgressive behavior is a widespread issue within the national public broadcaster. Signals about this have not been dealt with sufficiently professionally and decisively by the broadcasters and the Dutch Public Broadcasting (NPO).
This emerges from the report of the Research Committee on Conduct and Culture of Broadcasters (OGCO) by Martin van Rijn. The report is full of explicit stories from employees about perceived inappropriate behavior in the Hilversum workplace.
The committee spoke to more than 200 broadcasting employees about workplace culture. About 2,500 people also completed a questionnaire. As many as three-quarters of respondents appeared to have come into contact with one or more forms of undesirable behavior to a greater or lesser extent.
‘Brothels, jerking off and whores’
In the conversations, employees mentioned examples of sexual comments that were often directly addressed to a person. Jokes and comments such as: ‘Your pants are really tight’, ‘Do you want to see my carrot?’, ‘Have you ever been fucked?’, ‘Why aren’t you wearing that skirt from last week?’, addressing female colleagues as ‘ pussy’, and asking female colleagues ‘who would you rather give a blow job, me or…?’, the report states.
Anyone who reacted uncomfortably to this was dismissed by colleagues as prudish or shy. The committee writes: ‘In conversations, examples have been mentioned of male colleagues who, in the presence of other colleagues – including young women – discussed in the workplace who they had ‘fucked’ at the weekend, about ‘brothels’, ‘jerk off’ and ‘whores’. ‘, and jokingly sang sexual songs and pulled down someone’s pants.’
‘Scared rotten and trampled into the ground’
In the case of verbal intimidation, employees talk about a ‘shouting culture’ in conversations, with some indicating that this was seen as normal. Employees mention that they have experienced or observed that people have been ‘screamed in people’s faces’, ‘people have been humiliated until they run away crying’, employees have been called ‘shit’ and employees have been ‘trampled into the ground’.
Bullying behavior is also common, the interviewees indicated. Examples are: ‘you will never be good in your position’, ‘if it had been up to me you would not have gotten a permanent contract’, ‘I don’t believe you can do that’, and courses have been recommended because they are ‘substandard’ would perform. Employees indicate that they were told that they were ‘doing everything wrong’.
‘Smear campaigns and character assassination’
A number of employees speak of bullying in the form of ‘smear campaigns’ and character assassinations’, in which employees’ reputations were damaged by portraying them as unreliable if, for example, they did not complete their work or were not present at work, the report said. Commission.
Several employees speak of situations in which women in particular, but also young (gay) men, are ‘screened’ and selected on the basis of their appearance. ‘She doesn’t function, but I enjoy watching her. So she can stay’, for example, was said about an employee. Or, “You only managed to do this because you’re an attractive woman.”
Relationships between managers and subordinates were common in the workplace, the study showed. “Some people’s stories show that the inappropriateness of relationships was not always immediately recognized,” the committee writes in the report.
“They said that they were initially impressed by the charisma of the manager, that they had the feeling of being special, and assumed that the relationship was exclusive, which led them to go along with advances from formal or informal managers. Sometimes they were overwhelmed or felt unable to refuse. Although there was no formal coercion, there was also no equal consent due to the inequality in power position.”