Harassment & Bullying

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Harassment

Overview

Harassment in various forms is a pervasive occurrence in workplaces.  It results in individual harm as well as organizational harm and costs.  As of the time of this writing harassment has been extensively covered in the media, including:

The various complaints of sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry and covered by the media, which have spawned the #metoo campaign.  These reports have shown that many people were reluctant and even afraid for years to come forward with their complaints because the alleged perpetrators had a lot of power in the industry.

Examples:

I became aware of an incident in a large organization where senior managers asked the manager of learning to design workplace violence prevention training.  At first the learning manager thought the training was supposed to deal with employee – public violence.  However, clarification was provided that the training was intended to deal with incidents of violence between employees.  An example was provided: two people working in trades had a dispute.  The verbal dispute escalated into a physical dispute culminating in one worker deliberately slamming the vehicle door onto the arm of the other worker, breaking the arm.  No one reported this criminal incident to supervisors, managers, anyone in human resources, or the police.  The supervisor only found out about this after checking why the injured worker had not shown up for work during the past week.  Once aware of the circumstances no official report was made by the supervisor or the manager, although clearly many people had become aware of the incident in the ensuing months and years.  No sanctions were imposed on the perpetrator and no aid was offered to the victim.  According to the senior managers present at the training meeting, the solution was to provide training to everyone and this would solve the problem.

In another story I came across, a woman in a management position came to work on a Monday morning to find that the office she had previously occupied now was assigned to someone else.  All of her belongings and materials had been moved from her office to her new workspace.  This new workspace was a cubicle at the far end of the building which was also used as a storage space for unused cubicle parts and pieces.  In essence she had been unceremoniously moved to the storage space.  Perhaps coincidentally, this woman had also made a complaint some weeks or months earlier against a senior executive concerning harassment.  Someone in power had decided unilaterally and without any communication to the woman that her office was going to be reassigned to someone else and that the only space available for her was now a cubicle/storage space at the back of the building.

Why Harassment in the Workplace is a Problem for Individuals and Organizations

Workplace harassment and violence cost billion dollars annually in lost productivity, workplace absence, and sick leave.  Harassment has serious health consequences for employees who are harassed. Other undesirable consequences of harassment can include:

Attraction and retention

In the past the attitude of many organizations toward their employees has been to say in effect something like “…you should be glad you have a job here…”  However, changing demographics and other factors have resulted in a environment where people are increasingly mobile and jobs in certain sectors are unfilled due to shortages of workers.  When people can choose where to work then companies need to spend more time attracting and retaining workers.  Failing to create and maintain a harassment free workplace can result in people fleeing the company thereby creating vacancies that are difficult to fill.  Or it may be that vacant positions are filled only with staff that are relatively junior and have insufficient work related experience.  This then can result in a loss of expertise, inability to meet challenges faced by the company, or other negative outcomes.  For example in one organization of about 3000 employees there is such a negative work environment that in an employee survey conducted several years ago 43% of employees did not trust their executives.  Employees were becoming ill due to stress, were crying at work, and were doing whatever they could to leave to company.  Faced with financial obligations the choices for many employees are limited.  One employee took a leave of absence for a year to get away from a toxic work environment.  Others quit because they had the financial freedom, mobility and/or skillsets to quit and seek employment elsewhere.  Often the lure and promise of a pension plan and various benefits are not enough to overcome the disgust and fear for personal safety that employees have and they quit.  Enough is enough.

Attraction of new employees also becomes problematic when an organization has a reputation that harassment is occurring.  I have known of people declining to apply for jobs or also pulling out of applications in progress due to information they’ve found out about a company.  Reputation counts.  Social media quickly spreads the word about which organization has a problem with harassment, which company has weak executives and abusive managers, and so on.

Dealing With Harassment in the Workplace

Dealing with harassment in the workplace can be considered from two perspectives: what should the victim do, and what should the organization do.  Also, I will say quite frankly that it is best to retain the professional services of a lawyer experienced in this field.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel by trying to deal with this yourself.  The money a lawyer charges will be worth every cent (no, I am not a lawyer).

What should an organization do to deal with harassment effectively:

Some organizations take a progressive and proactive stance toward dealing with harassment.  They not only have policies to outline how harassment complaints are to be dealt with, but they have specific units or departments which specialize in dealing with harassment complaints.  One organization even advertised for outside assistance with investigating such complaints should the established internal resources be insufficient for some reason.  Using contractors to expand the capabilities in dealing with harassment allows the organization to rapidly bring in more and diverse resources very quickly.  Furthermore, organizations which deal with harassment complaints effectively ensure they have mandatory training about dealing with harassment for various roles in the organization.  Such training is documented in a centralized training database (learning management system).  The training is more than just a powerpoint made by an employee.  Proper training should be designed by a learning specialist to ensure learning outcomes are achieved to support the organization’s goals.

Organizations are complex environments and consequently there are no easy “cookie cutter” solutions.  Individual assessments and investigations must be conducted, ideally.  A strong starting point is to use a systematic approach such as Gilbert’s Behavioral Engineering model (Gilbert, 1978).  This model has been updated by Roger Chevalier in his 2007 book “A Manager’s Guide to Improving Workplace Performance”.  This updated model provides a robust and systematic way to analyze work situations, define and diagnose problems, and to create and implement solutions.  This model is like a swiss army knife because it is scalable and applicable to a wide range of circumstances and organizations.

In Ontario, Canada the Occupational Health and Safety legislation requires that employers conduct proper investigations into complaints of harassment.  This is logical given the research which has shown the negative health effects arising from harassment, bullying, and toxic environments.  An article by a law firm outlines what not to do, and how an inappropriate action by a company resulted in a costly outcome for a organization that tolerated sexual harassment (https://www.siskinds.com/workplace-harassment-investigation/?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original ).  The author of that article, a lawyer, summarizes what should happen in a proper investigation:

  • It is important to actually investigate complaints made either directly or indirectly, and such investigation should be conducted in a complete and timely manner. The resources and time devoted to the investigation should be commensurate with the severity of the complaint.  Failing to take action and/or minimizing the complaint will likely lead to a negative outcome for the organization.
  • The investigation should be conducted in a transparent manner with both the complainant and alleged perpetrator being apprised of any progress and results.
  • The investigation should be conducted by someone who is competent in conducting organizational investigations, specifically harassment investigations. Assigning junior staff is not appropriate.  Similarly, assigning someone with a perceived or actual interest in the outcome is also inappropriate.
  • Other suggestions are outlined in the article.

 

What should the victim of harassment do?

In my experience the first thing one should do as a victim is to start documenting carefully what has happened.  This is also what the author of the a/n article suggested.  Notes are important because:

  • Memory fails quickly
  • Notes are a permanent record of what happened, and can be used years later. It is important to realize that many times these court cases can take years to resolve.  Notes are a good way to refresh your memory about what happened.

 

Make witnesses by telling someone else and documenting who you told what.  Without witnesses there is a risk that the perpetrator will claim you are fabricating the incident(s).  It becomes a case of your word against the perpetrator’s word.  Tell one or more co-workers at work, and tell someone outside your work.  Document that in your notes.

Equally important is that you should tell someone in a supervisory or management position.  Once you advise someone in a managerial position the organization has a duty to investigate the complaint and to take action accordingly.  Document:

  • Who you told (and note who else was present)
  • What you told each person
  • When and where you told them
  • What they said in response to your complaint

 

How to Take Good Notes:

Before getting into what to record, a few other considerations are important to discuss.

  1. The first question facing a note-taker will be whether to make handwritten notes or electronic notes. They each have their pros and cons.

Handwritten notes (made in ink, not pencil) tend to be more permanent.  In many jobs it is common to have a notebook or agenda type book, and so writing notes into such a book is easy.  The down side of handwritten notes is that it is slow and these notes are not searchable.  Also, there is some research that suggests hand writing notes involves slightly different brain processes which increase likelihood of remembering events.  Writing notes also spurs self-reflection which can result in richer, more detailed notes.

Electronic notes can be faster and easier to make because you can dictate them using transcription software.  Electronic notes are searchable.  This makes it easier to compile reports for your lawyer.  The down side of using electronic notes is that technology can fail.  Devices can crash and you will lose all your data unless you have made timely backups.

Whatever you decide to use, it is important that you do not use company assets to create or store your notes.  Use your own notebooks, or use your own phone, tablet or computer to make and store your notes.  Do not store your notes on the company servers.  Often companies have policies which allow them to retain control of their own assets such as stationary (books, papers, binders, filing cabinets) and digital devices (company phones, computers, servers, networks).  Many companies have policies that they have their employees sign which entitles the company to monitor digital communications.  They can read your mail and files stored on their servers.  Guard your privacy!

Content of notes:

Made at the time, or as close as possible

Record: who was present, where an incident occurred, date / time, what was said and done.  You should try to record in as much detail any conversations.  Record the demeanor of the perpetrator.  Record your reaction.  Record what action you took, for example that you told the perpetrator to stop doing the offensive behavior.  Write down exactly what you said, and his/her response.

Generally start with observable behavior, and then record the impact this had on you.

In many cases you will be asked about what you were thinking during and after an incident.  Since the court case might happen years later remembering what you were thinking at the time of an incident can be difficult without notes.

The Government of Canada website provides an online tool here for employees to deal with harassment: https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/healthy-workplace/prevention-resolution-harassment/harassment-tool-employees.html