Dear member,
The festival of Holi is celebrated differently in different places in India. Apart from playing with colours, people also keep aside the strictness of office life and
let their hair down. The mask of innocence may fall off a few. These people startle others when they start cracking jokes full of double entendre.
However, at times the people take advantage of the unrestrained atmosphere and develop undue closeness with the members of the opposite sex. A few go still further and engage in obnoxious activities.
In the case of your company, the male members tried to dance with the female members. Was it just a dance or still something else? A woman employee could have said no to the simple proposal for the dance and the matter should have ended there. The modesty of a woman does not get violated for merely proposing to an office colleague for the dance. We are in 2024 and the application of the parochial rules of the erstwhile times is misplaced.
Have you received a complaint from the female employees? If a formal complaint is received, then you need to look into the seriousness of the complaint. If it is a general complaint, then call both parties to iron out the differences. Also, investigate whether the male employee(s) exerted pressure on the female employee(s) to dance with them. Another point of investigation is whether the female employee(s) showed a cheerful willingness when the demand came for the dance but after the dance, they started feeling guilty for coming out of the cloister of conservatism and hence the complaint. The next point of investigation is whether the dissent between the two existed anyway and the demand for dance is being used as an alibi to settle the score.
If either or both parties hold to their position and are disinclined to reconcile, then order the domestic enquiry. If the female employee shows readiness to withdraw the complaint, then it should be unconditional and without any trade-off.
General comments: - Celebrations on the occasion of the festivals fall under employee engagement activities. The indirect objective of such celebrations is to allow the employees to develop social ties. But then it becomes challenging when these engagement activities sow the seeds of discord. The HR professionals need to issue the guidelines so that the spirit of celebration does not get diluted.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar