Shrishti Mishra*, a senior executive with an MNC in Mumbai, found herself in an awkward situation recently, when her senior started sending her inappropriate messages on the company’s internal communicator. “Initially, he sent a message and deleted it before I could read it. I tried not to pay attention to it,” the 29-year-old recalls. “But then there was this one time, when I was inundated with messages, many of which were suggestive in nature. Again, he ensured that he deleted them before I could read them. But I had scanned them via notifications.” Her first reaction was that it had been sent by mistake. She only started to get worried, when he sent a message saying that he meant every word of what he wrote. “I managed to take some screenshots and decided to report him to the concerned people,” said Mishra. Luckily, since the messages were sent on the internal communicator, the server could trace the deleted messages and action was taken against the accused.

With work from home (WFH) becoming the new normal due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, experts say that incidence of virtual sexual harassment at the workplace are now on the rise.