Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Other Workplace Harassment can test HR skills

Take workplace harassment seriously, because it is!

Workplace harassment is NOT just about sexual harassment or racial harassment in the workplace.  They are but two of a half-dozen personal infringements where policies and laws guard against such abuses.  The insidious nature of workplace harassment means that it sometimes comes from "good people" whose hostility—intentional or unintentional--comes just under the legal radar.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC, as it is better known) and most state governments view workplace harassment against any protected class as unlawful and the court decisions reflect these positions.  The question is, has your company taken a close enough look at your own company's practices to be assured that you are free of such activity?  Most companies think they have, but the results sometimes indicated they did not.

Workplace harassment exists when unwelcome verbal or physical conduct based on "legally protected characteristics" becomes serious enough or pervasive in nature and results in a change in an employee's employment status or benefits. 

Hostile work environment harassment exists when unwelcome comments or conduct based on "legally protected characteristics" interferes with an employee's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.  Anyone in the workplace can commit this kind of harassment.  The legally protected characteristics (classes) include:

• race/ethnicity
• nationality
• religion (or lack thereof)
• gender bias (including same gender offenses)
• sexual orientation
• age (40+)
• disability (mental or physical)
• retaliation

Sexual harassment in the workplace and racial harassment in the workplace comprise a discrimination problem for American businesses, and even in the public sectors.  Condoning workplace harassment and overall hostile work environments costs greatly.   For all types of harassment, whether the issue is religious, racial, gender-biased, age, disability, or national origin, at the base of the issue is a general lack of respect that companies have no right or position to condone or allow.  Companies need to take an active role in discouraging all such behavior.

Here are a few of the situations that have reached recent court decisions:

• Non-white employees pursue hostile environment claims when they were subjected to ethnic and racial slurs.
• Corporate harassment polices found inadequate when based on sexual advances and propositions—not harassment based upon gender.
• Religious harassment based on criticism for not being available to work on a religious holiday and derogatory statements about the religion.
• Courts upheld a hostile environment claim when a supervisor required a disabled person to do duties beyond his physical abilities, was taunted about it, and called him names related to his disability.
• Courts upheld a decision about age being a factor in a dismissal when it became known a supervisor had referred to the employee as "the old man" and had been heard commenting about his aging appearance.

When is joking around not funny anymore?

We are all familiar with what it would take to be at the limit of workplace harassment.  We are aware of what could be said or done in a racial, sexual, or other situation to be guilty of creating a hostile work environment at its outer limit, but what constitutes crossing the inner boundary?  When does a jovial work team become a hostile work environment?  A co-worker struggling with weight is on a diet, and over the cubicle wall comes a piece of candy.  Teasing?  Funny?  Maybe.  Repeat the behavior day after day until the employee dreads coming to work and you find that a hostile work environment has already been created. 

Making the grey area not so grey

The EEOC guidelines and court rulings were never intended to be a guide to civil behavior and good manners.  That is where the skills of professional human resource personnel come into action.  If we back away from the situation a bit and examine if we have come to a point where someone wants to yell, "Stop it!" then we are well across the line.  When the person and his or her behavior have become obnoxious, then intervention should happen right away.  It is in this grey area that the human resource professional needs to find his or her ground and stand by it, making it black and white.

One of the great difficulties in an employee gaining credibility when protesting a hostile work environment or other workplace harassment is the number of frivolous complaints that arise over the broader picture.  When such employees do not apply the same reasoning as courts, employers, and human resource professionals, then a manager can become overwhelmed with having to address all reported instances with equal pressure.  There are no legal protections for teasing, for example, but what one might call teasing, another might call offensive harassment.  The skills of the human resource professional are tested here, and it is helpful to have already determined where the line is. 

Seeking opinions and advice

Because we are all subject to our own environments and what we become accustomed to, it is often helpful to be able to counsel with another human resource professional outside the company and the company's culture before the need arises for escalation and possible legal action.  As always, CBR stands ready to assist its clients in all needs pertaining to personnel management, and counseling about employee relations is no exception.

Here are the general guidelines for determining if you can expect to pursue a claim of harassment:

1. The claimant must be part of a protected class.
2. The claimant was subjected to unwelcome verbal or physical conduct related to that protected class.
3. The conduct was based on being part of that protected class.
4. The conduct affected the term or condition of employment or resulting hostility, intimidation, etc., interfered with work performance.

Taking a proactive approach to handling workplace harassment, sexual harassment in the workplace, racial harassment in the workplace and all other forms of discrimination between co-workers is always advisable for all employers. 

CBR is named the first PEO in Arizona to be honored as a BBB Ethics Award Finalist for 2006 and 2007.  This award applauds employers as they strive to ensure that ethics remains a driving force in their business.  read more