It is important that you feel safe at VU Amsterdam. A safe environment for working and studying is required where any form of inappropriate behaviour is not tolerated.
Inappropriate behaviour is behaviour you experience as threatening, humiliating or intimidating. Examples include (sexual) harassment, discrimination, aggression, stalking and bullying. These actions can be experienced differently by everyone. What is seen as normal behaviour for one person may be perceived as inappropriate for another. Do you doubt whether your situation also falls under inappropriate behaviour? Feel free to ask for advice from the confidential counsellors for students, confidential counsellor for staff and PhD's or the social safety coordinators.
Below are some examples of inappropriate behaviour. For all these examples, you can contact the confidential counsellor. If the unwanted behaviour you have experienced is not listed here, you can still contact the confidential counsellor. When in contact with the confidential counsellor, you will always remain in control. The confidential counsellor will think along with you and support and advise you with your choices.
If you experience unwanted behaviour and hesitate to confront the person causing it, you can also choose to seek help. As an employee, for instance, you can go to a manager, as a student you can contact the study advisor of your study programme. For both there is also the option of going to the confidential counsellor for students or confidential counsellor for staff and PhD's.
Have you encountered inappropriate behaviour? If so, you can contact the confidential counsellor for students or for staff and PhD's.
The confidential counsellors are there to:
The confidential counsellor is on your side. He or she will initially be there to listen to you and explore together what follow-up steps are possible. The decision on which steps to take always remains with you. However, the confidential counsellor can support you, for instance by accompanying you to a meeting, submitting a complaint about undesirable behaviour, or reporting the incident to the police if you choose to do so.
In some cases, it is not possible, too intense or sometimes even dangerous to address the person exhibiting the inappropriate behaviour yourself and help is needed. In addition, it can be difficult to assess how dangerous a situation is and you will need advice on this. Examples include (online) threats, stalking or other forms of violence. The social safety coordinator investigates and gives advice on situations where safety is at stake and can also take action afterwards to restore safety.
The social safety coordinators are there to:
In principle, you will first go to the confidential counsellor before going to the social safety coordinators. The latter will involve the social safety coordinators the moment their expertise is needed.
You can reach the social safety coordinators at sociale-veiligheid@vu.nl.
A safe and pleasant work environment at VU Amsterdam includes being able to address undesirable behaviour and conduct when it occurs. In the Active Bystander training you will learn to recognize inappropriate behaviour. Also, the training gives you concrete tools to address inappropriate and undesirable behaviour. VU employees can participate in this interactive training course of 1,5 hours.