Bullying, sexual harassment and racism are problems that happen in workplaces across the United States, and employees often don’t report them.
The makers of a new app, called the “#NotMe” app, believe they’re giving employees a safe way to report those types of issues.
This week marks the third anniversary of the #MeToo movement, which motivated Ariel Weindling to create the #NotMe app.
Williams said she’ll never forget how she felt.
“Victims of any sort of harassment, discrimination, and especially women, when it comes to sexual harassment, gender discrimination, which is what it was in my case -- you feel very alone,” William said. “You feel very isolated. You almost start to second guess yourself and think, ‘Well, what did I do to bring this on?’ So you don’t necessarily reach out for the help when you should.”
She said when she did reach out for help, she had several conversations with the director of human resources that didn’t go anywhere.
Then, someone told her about the #NotMe app.
“I said, ‘You know what, let me download this,’” Williams said.
She was at her son’s BMX bike practice when she started to fill out the information. She said she felt relieved and empowered.
“What we’ve done is given you a place to speak up, either anonymously or using your name, in less than three minutes right from your phone,” president and CBO LeBaron Meyers said.
The app is free for anyone. Employers can also offer it as a reporting tool for staff members.
“When someone does report, if they are not with one of our clients, then someone from our training team reaches out to see what it is that they need, and that’s different for each individual,” Meyers said.
The goal is to help both employees and employers, he said.
“That’s what this is all about,” Meyers said. “Let’s speak up and speak up earlier so that we prevent the pain that’s happening to employees and the pain to employers that are good employers that don’t have the information and don’t know what to do in order to prevent it, because they’re not hearing about it until too late.”
“It definitely -- physically, on the stress of the situation -- took its toll on me, so I guess I would encourage somebody to speak up sooner, speak up earlier,” Williams said.
People can use the #NotMe app to report any kind of misconduct, even including coronavirus (COVID-19) noncompliance.