Trying to avoid unwanted male attention in the office? Imagining your grandmother is in the room during interaction with colleagues of the opposite sex is one way.
Not wearing anything revealing and learning to accept compliments “gracefully” are also said to work a charm.
Although sounding like this advice comes from some 1950’s etiquette manual, it’s from a major employee training service used by some of the world’s biggest online companies including Google and Groupon.
Jhana Education, which provides online workplace training to dozens of clients globally, published the out-dated advice in an article entitled “What if a male colleague gets the wrong idea?” (which has since be removed from its website).
Tips included avoiding showing skin, watching the tone of your voice and “dialling back” your flirtatious instincts.
“In a perfect world, women would feel free to dress however they want without being stigmatised for it,” the manual stated.
“Know that revealing clothing and certain verbal tics, such as ending statements with an upward inflection in your voice or struggling to accept a compliment, can affect others’ ability to take you seriously.
“If you’re touchy-feely or flirtatious by nature, you might want to dial it back around him and any guys from whom you sense discomfort.”
The guidelines also provided a handy hint for avoiding accidental flirting — imagine your grandmother is in the room.
“Don’t say or do anything you wouldn’t say or do in the presence of your grandmother. If you sense that you could start unconsciously flirting (you’re human, and sometimes it happens), imagine that your grandmother is in the room.
“If you’d feel embarrassed saying or doing whatever you’re about to say or do in front of Grandma, don’t go there.”
The “advice” was quickly picked up by feminist website Jezebel, which ran an editorial blasting its sexist overtones.
“The problem with the piece — besides the fact that it treats its target audience like actual sex idiots — is that it once again implies that women are responsible for how men behave and what men think,” Jezebel writer Erin Gloria Ryan wrote.
“Unsurprisingly, a male equivalent (How Not to Act All Skanky In Your Tie And Your Business Clothes) doesn’t seem to exist.
“Men are not coached on how to talk less like men from the TV. And men are not advised to keep their clavicles under wraps, lest their lady colleagues be driven mad with lust.”
