I used to work in FE, in a customer service/admin-type role. One of the duties was assisting members of the public and/or enrolled students, who would drop in with enquiries. Another task of the department was to assess applicants’ levels of literacy and numeracy. Certain staff had much more interaction with the public front-line than others (who would be in a side office doing admin, or, lets be realistic,skiving). Over time, I became increasingly aware of some front line staff (usually male, but not exclusively) calling male colleagues from the side office area to come and deal with an ‘assessment’. I found this strange as it was not part of their duties to cover the assessments, but thought nothing more of it. Then, at a Christmas team lunch, one of the team had compiled a ‘fun’ quiz about the team/college. One of the questions was “what does assessment mean?”. I was shocked to learn that it was a code word used to call male staff to the public area, to gawp at / ogle younger female students & members of the public (who were deemed to be ‘fit’ or ‘hot’). Apparently this was an open secret and had gone on for some time. There were line managers and departmental managers (male and female) present at the lunch. No official action was taken! I tried to raise it, but was told I didn’t have any written proof and therefore that I was putting in false complaints against male colleagues. In addition, the ID numbers of ‘fit’ female students were emailed around male staff every so often, so they could check out the online ID photos and timetables, to see when the student/s were due in college. Certain male staff would then hang around the entrance to try and see the student arrive or leave. And all this took place in a publicly-funded FE college, supposedly a place of equality, learning and improving the mind. Shocking!
