As a manager, handling a situation of workplace harassment can be difficult. If your employee approaches you with a situation, they depend on you to protect them and resolve the issue. You may even be legally obligated to ensure these matters are handled.
Here is a situation to consider: you have a young female employee approach you about two male supervisors making lewd comments, sending sexually explicit text messages, and touching her while at work. You decide to schedule her when these supervisors are not working to limit their access to her. You call the problem solved. However, because your staff is so small, and one of the two supervisors is almost always working, this results in a reduction in her work hours.
If you took this action, you could find yourself in hot water, as one fast food restaurant found out the hard way. The restaurant had a female employee report two managers for sexually harassing her, and in response, the company reduced her hours. Whether this reduction was due to an attempt to separate her from the managers or in retaliation is unknown. Still, the outcome was an order to pay $200,000 to the employee to settle the subsequent EEOC sexual harassment and retaliation claim.
The two-year decree imposed on the company also mandated harassment prevention policies and training on Title VII’s prohibition on sexual harassment and retaliation, posting notices regarding the settlement, and periodic reporting to the EEOC of sex discrimination complaints received during the two-year timeframe.
To avoid having your company become a cautionary tale, take reports of harassment or other workplace issues seriously. When presented with these types of situations, take the following steps:
Conducting an investigation into workplace issues can be new territory or even overwhelming for some managers. Clients of FrankCrum can reach out to their HR Consultant to help them through the process. Contact us today to learn more about how FrankCrum can help you.