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I’m so tired of this red herring conversation about ‘snowflakes’. It’s reckless at best, at worst it’s patronising and highly offensive.

I met my fiancé through work. No, it was not harassment when he flirted with me. I also had a case where a man in my office accidentally brushed my chest while getting a drink at a bar. It was an accident. No I wasn’t offended.

Now can we please get to the matter at hand: there are serious cases of horrific bullying and sexual abuse in these environments. I’m talking sustained harassment, over the period of years, even rape. Completely unwanted touching and inappropriate behavior over the period of years. Lewd or hurtful comments, sometimes shouted across open plans or hissed, or taken into a room. I have been in offices where I’ve seen colleagues belittled, screamed at, sworn at. I have heard awful stories from other women. The statistics are there, the stories are there. Just go on Roll on Friday and take a look if by some miracle you haven’t had any involvement, witnessed, or heard from a friend or colleague.

Now, if you haven’t been exposed to these incidents that doesn’t mean they are not true. Often the victim leaves, embarrassed and ashamed (and often with a damaged career) while the perpetrator stays on, usually comfortable in their position of power. Often victims don’t talk about it, or only mention it to close friends and family. They are ashamed, they are usually often powerless. I’ve never heard of a unicorn HR team that actually deals with these situations properly.

This is criminal behavior and the sooner we recognize and admit it is happening the sooner it can be identified and eliminated. So everyone whining about snowflakes, please go away. You clearly don’t understand or have any involvement (if you did you would not be saying such spurious things) and whilst I’m sure you don’t mean to, you’re wasting all of our time.