Personal safety & near-miss reporting

[FlyingBananas]

I work in an industry that is very safety conscious and we have good systems for reporting accidents at work and serious near misses.

For my job I travel a lot and almost always use public transport, which I'm fine with.

I'm wondering what to do about a recent non-incident, whether to record it as a near-miss, or speak to someone more informally, but at the same time feel I'm making something out of nothing...

I caught a long train journey recently and felt increasingly unnerved by the man sitting opposite me. I ignored him during the journey (laptop and headphones) but as we left the train felt he was following me. I hung back near some platform guards for a bit and he did look back at me as he left the station so I don't think I was imagining it. I then went for a taxi home rather than the bus. So nothing actually happened, I didn't need to alert anyone, and we were nearing my stop (the last stop, at a busy station) by the time I started thinking about moving seat, but I still feel uncomfortable about it now.

Has anyone else reported this sort of thing as a near miss at work? I honestly feel a bit daft considering it. It's a large business in a male dominated industry and I'm a senior female, should that bear any relevance.

Never.

In situations like that I would text someone to indicate I was uneasy, opt for a taxi, communicate my ETA home and then text to confirm that I was home.

I'm not sure a company could do anything about this, even in a business travel situation. If it were a conference, meeting with client or workplace incident of someone pushing boundaries, then it would be a lot more meaningful. Sorry.

I would mention to HR the lengths of defensive action you had to go through to avoid a situation, and ask them what the company policy/guidance is on ensuring personal safety when travelling for work. If you were worried, then it is valid. Report it.

Mmmm. Quite a lot of places have lone worker policies. I don't know if that would extend to lone traveller policies...

Thanks all, I wasn't sure what the point of it would be but I'll have a chat with HR/ the safety manager and make sure our guidance on lone travel is okay. I'm glad we're moving to more public transport but this does seem to be a particularly female downside.

Reporting near misses like this changed our lone worker and expense claim policies to be allowed to travel earlier/later or upgrade to First Class on trains in specific circumstances (including match day travel) or change travel arrangements entirely if we felt our safety was being compromised - from memory there was a bit of guidance on dynamic risk assessment, too.

For me, 'near misses' are things like when one of our drivers left the handbrake off a 32t truck and it rolled away, narrowly missing several people. In the instance of somebody giving you a funny look I'm not sure what the hazard would be or the reperative solution. As other posters have said maybe the lone worker element is the most appropriate.

For us in this context as described by the OP, "near misses" are situations where we do not just feel unsafe - for instance when walking through a dark, but empty alley where we are vulnerable to attack - but have reason to do so because of the actions of a male person - like walking through a dark alley with a man following us into and out of the alley, pursuing us until we seek refuge somewhere.

Without taking evasive and/or defensive actions, there's a real risk the near miss would have been an actual incident. And contrary to your assertion, we do not count a guy merely looking at us funny as near misses.

Unfortunately, that's because the vast majority of women are familiar with the situation. The first time I had to take measures to shake off a man who pursued me I was 13. I wish I could say it never happened again, but I had an aggressive male ranting at me (not as a random person but as a woman) just ten days ago, again making evasive actions necessary. In a workplace environment I would have definitely reported that last incident to create an official log.

Just wanted to add, FlyingBananas, further to ArranUpsideDown's advice to text someone, I would also log the incident with a description of the male in question in my calendar. For two reasons - if you encounter this guy again under the same circumstances, you have the details to hand to make a detailed report to the police if needed and if he goes further with another woman and harasses or assaults her, you may be able to provide evidence that this is a pattern and/or provide a description so that he can be caught.

I'm in a similar work environment to you OP. I would have a chat with HR to tell them you feared for your personal safety.
If nothing else, they shouldn't kick up a fuss for an extra taxi fare if you took it to feel safe.

Another vote for texting a friend with a description (or photo if you're able) at the time though

OP I don’t class that as a near miss.
He sat opposite you the entire “long” train journey and you ignored him.
Then you got off the train and waited and watched for him. He got off, glances and notices you watching him.
That’s paranoia not a near miss unless you’ve left out part of the story.
He’s unnerved you but how? You don’t say. Was he touching himself? Licking lips? Making sexual comments? Accidentally on purpose rubbing his leg against yours?

I agree with PlanDeRaccordement. If you are reporting this you'll need to provide a lot more information about what he was doing.

but as we left the train felt he was following me - alternatively you both left the train and headed for the station exit.

Thanks all, I had jotted down a note of it at work but will add some extra details in case I need to go back to it in the future. I think I'll have a chat with the safety manager about what we have around public transport in the lone working policy rather than go down the near-miss route, unless they suggest it.

They're good on the whole dynamic risk assessment side of things and are supportive of taxi fares or any other additional expenses if they come up.

What extra details? Nothing you've posted on here goes beyond " I think a man looked at me a bit funny" - in fact not even that.

He followed you off the train - well he would wouldn't he if it was his stop too.

I'm happy that I'm not being paranoid, I know what occurred, how he acted, how I felt and what I was concerned about. If I need to I can talk the that through with our safety manager but I wasn't after validation of that experience here, more what would be about right in terms of the near-miss reporting or otherwise. CharlieParley, your examples of what you would or wouldn't call a near-miss have been particularly useful, thank you.

Are there any personal safety apps you can recommend to your employer?

I don't actually know any personal safety apps, any recommendations would be good. Only thing I can think of is the British Transport Police text number.