If I asked you who handles harassment cases at work, you’d probably all say HR does. Those who know HR well would add that this is a job for the Employee Relations team. While this is true, there’s often a step before HR gets involved, and that’s the manager.
Managers may not know the critical role they play in stopping and preventing harassment at work. You need to train managers, or they may let harassment continue, making employees’ lives difficult and putting the company at risk.
Recognizing illegal harassment.
Do your managers know what illegal actions look like? The good news–they don’t have to. There can be some tricky legalities around harassment. Truth is, you can be a jerk and treat people terribly, and it’s not illegal–as long as you’re an equal opportunity jerk.
But, once you start treating people poorly because of their race, gender, etc., it becomes illegal.
To keep reading, click here: Managers and HR Need to Work Together to Prevent Harassment
I like the comment about being an equal opportunity jerk. Some in my organization seem to think it’s OK for a manager to be a jerk to their subordinates, so long as they’re a jerk to everyone, totally ignoring how detrimental such conduct is to employee morale and productivity.
Great article and great new layout to your website!
Thank you! I’m really excited about it. A couple more tweaks coming but it really looks so much better!
I realized it was time to update when my accountant told me he loved my “retro” website and I was like, gulp, it’s not supposed to be retro! 🙂