PSI's Anti-Harassment Policy
Pet Sitters International (PSI) is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race or religion. We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, bullying, xenophobia or racism in any form.
This policy applies to all PSI spaces—both online and off—including but not limited to PSI’s private Facebook group, Pet Sitter World Educational Conference and FOCUS One-Day Online Summit. Anyone who violates this policy may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of PSI and violations may result in revocation of membership.
Some PSI spaces may have additional rules in place, which will be made available to participants. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
- Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion
- Deliberate misgendering or use of ”dead”/rejected names
- Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior
- Physical contact or simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like *hug* or *backrub*) without consent or after a request to stop
- Threats of violence or incitement of violence towards any individual
- Deliberate intimidation
- Stalking or following
- Harassing photography or recording
- Unwelcomed sexual attention
- Sustained disruption of discussions or events
- Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy
- Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease
- Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent
- Publication of private communication
PSI reserves the right to not act on complaints that are not discrimination/harassment, including but not limited to:
- Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you”
- Communicating in a “tone” you don’t find congenial
- Criticizing racist, sexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior and assumptions
Reporting
If you are being harassed by a member of PSI (or a PSI staff member, partner, affiliate or participant at a PSI event), notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact PSI at info@petsit.com. At in-person PSI events, you are encouraged to report any instances of harassment to a PSI staff member onsite as soon as possible.
If the person who is harassing you is on the PSI staff, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. We will respond as promptly as we can. Please note that we will also never name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.
Consequences
PSI members (or those associated with PSI) asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Additionally, PSI may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all PSI activities, membership or events (without refund) and identification of the offender as someone who violated this anti-harassment policy to PSI members or the general public (e.g., “This individual is no longer presenting at a PSI conference because they were found to have been in violation of PSI’s Anti-Harassment Policy.”)
This anti-harassment policy is based on the example policy from Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Geek Feminism community.
See also: PSI's Non-Discrimination Policy
