What is retaliation?

Retaliation (also known as revenge, getting even, payback) is doing something harmful to someone because they’ve done or said something that you perceive as harmful to you. Retaliation can take many forms – examples you may see in the workplace include:

• Giving more or less work to somebody
• Changing working hours to make them less favourable
• Demotion
• Reducing pay
• Excluding somebody from meetings or training
• Threatening behaviour, intimidation or bullying
• Falsely accusing someone of poor performance

For our colleagues at sea, their workplace is also their home and colleagues are akin to family, so retaliation can also take other forms such as:

• Making fun of somebody or embarrassing them in front of friends or colleagues
• Excluding somebody from a group or social event
• Unfollowing or removing somebody from social media or a WhatsApp group
• Touching or tampering with somebody’s personal belongings
• Ganging up on somebody

None of this sounds nice, right? The health and wellbeing of all our colleagues, both ship and shore, is very important and we want everyone to bring their whole selves to work. When somebody speaks up they should be doing so in good faith because something is wrong or requires improvement, therefore they should not be retaliated against for doing so.

Nobody wants to be left out or bullied for doing the right thing. So, you made a mistake? Listen and Learn from it, don’t treat the person who pointed it out unfairly!

What should you do if you feel you have been retaliated against?

If you feel you’ve been retaliated against, it’s important that you Speak Up to your Line Manager or Head of Department immediately. We know it might feel difficult, but we’ll work with you to make sure that things get better. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking to them, there are many other ways you can Speak Up – click on the button below to find out more:

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