Sexual Harassment At Work : 3 Tips On How To Handle Uncomfortable Misconduct

International bestselling author Ava Miles calls herself a divine rockstar — something she believes everyone is deep down. Miles spent many years traveling the world and sharing her gifts with women and men in war-torn countries, helping them to rebuild and reintegrate their communities amidst intense struggle.

One book in particular from Ava Miles’ new “Goddess Guides” series — “Goddesses Deserve the Gs:

Relinking Self-Worth with Material Abundance” — deals with topics of women in the workplace. Having experienced inappropriate sexual advances herself in her professional life, she is offering her thoughts and tips.

“When women follow the dream of their profession and there's a powerful man and a system in place to perpetuate the old story/reality that a woman has to trade sex for what she wants, this is

extremely tragic,” says Ava. “The Weinstein situation is

all the more disturbing because there was a machine in place to both enable his behavior and punish people if they spoke up or said no.”

Tips for how to handle it if a male colleague asks a woman to meet in his hotel room for a meeting while on a work trip:

“That’s an uncomfortable place for anybody, even if it’s a suite,” says Ava, “so there are ways to diffuse that.”

1. You can say you’d rather meet in a bar or restaurant. Say you’d like to get a beverage and you don’t want to

do room service, and that you’ll meet them there.

2. Book a conference room, whether

in advance of the trip or in response to the request. This requires

, of course, that you’re

authorized to make that company expenditure. Book it then let him know you’d like to meet there.

3. The goal is to create a situation where you are calling the shots. If you go to a man’s hotel room, unless it is someone you implicitly trust, you are potentially putting yourself in a position of unnecessary vulnerability.

“The message the Harvey Weinstein scandal sends to women is dangerous and damaging because it

demonstrates the price of going after your dream and the cost if you have self worth and refuse,” says the author. “It

demonstrates how ill equipped we are as women to both express our truth (either saying no or reporting the crime) and to handle situations like this and still maintain our dream/profession with our reputations intact. Fear and punishment are running the day. We women need to have courage and faith that

we will be heard. We need to demand it

if necessary through the law. And then we need to teach it to other women since this reality doesn't seem to

be going away.”

For more information watch Ava’s video on sexual harassment tips below: