Employers should document every aspect of a harassment claim. The first step in the documentation process is to fill out the Employee Harassment Complaint form. Either have the employee fill the form out in a private area or begin the interview process using this form. Remember to have the employee sign the document when finished.
Here is a sample Employee Harassment Complaint form.
Starbucks does not have the corner on sexually harassing teens.
As an ex high school teacher and harassment prevention trainer, I dealt regularly with this issue. High school girls were propositioned, groped and required to date or perform a sexual act to get a job or a raise. Teenage sexual victimization is a quiet crime. As a career and technical educator, one of my responsibilities was to teach sexual harassment prevention to my junior and senior students. After the presentation, students would congregate and share their “war” stories in the lunchroom, quad, or bathrooms.
How did I know this? Staff members would mention it to me and some of those girls would stop by to talk to me. Brave students would stop me in the quad or stop by my classroom after school. These students were reluctant to admit it happened to them, so the talk would usually be about a “friend” or relative that was involved in a sexual harassment situation. It was evident that most of these “friends” thought they had to go along with it, they caused it to happen, or they did not want to get anyone in trouble. None of them wanted to admit it happened to them… it only happened to their “unnamed” friends.
Unfortunately, this unacceptable behavior continues.
Why does this behavior occur?
What can be done to address this problem?
Teenagers are the unspoken victims of sexual harassment. They are easily exploited by authority figures and most likely to say nothing. It is through education that schools can curb the sexual victimization of teenagers.
Rhonda Goetz is a sexual harassment prevention trainer and owner of Chrome Zebra, Inc. a sexual harassment prevention elearning company.
Dec 23
Quid Pro Quo means “this for that.” Watch this video to see an example:
Interviewing those people accused of harassing someone else can be at the very least difficult or at the worst, dangerous. Knowing how to handle this type of interview can resolve issues quickly and mitigate retaliation efforts.
Follow these guidelines:
During the interview, you should be taking copious notes, remaining professional and asking appropriate follow-up questions. Failure to collect sufficient information in this phase may create a liability issue for not handling the interview process correctly. It may also add to the claimant’s credibility if litigation occurs. Don’t let this happen to you. Handle the interview with care!
Protect your company — train your employees online!
Asking the right questions during a victim interview is critical. Here is a list of some of those questions:
Who, what, when, where, and how:
Incident specifics:
Supporting information:
As you are asking these questions, you should be taking copious notes, remaining professional and asking appropriate follow-up questions. Failure to collect sufficient information in this phase may create a liability issue for not handling the interview process correctly. It may also add to the claimant’s credibility if litigation occurs. Don’t let this happen to you. Ask Who, What Where, When and How!
Prepare management to ask the right questions by requiring harassment and discrimination training. Get more information on online harassment training.
How you handle the victim is critical to the resolution of the harassment claim.
Victims come in all shapes and sizes… Victims can be male or female, straight or gay, young or old, healthy or unhealthy… Victims may come to you suffering from the effects of the harassment and may also bring other baggage as well. Other baggage can include:
This past baggage may contribute to the escalation or deescalation of the current situation. Recognizing this is important as you approach the interview process.
Make sure that you’ve read the first article, Five Interview Techniques for Handling Harassment Claims to set the stage correctly for the interview.
Next:
Collect the Facts
Provide Assurances and Information
Assess the Victim’s Credibility
For more information on victim interviews, see Who, What Where, When and How Interview Questions
Remember that harassment and discrimination training protects your business and employees. Quality sexual harassment training will reduce the number of claims and time spent resolving them
Train your employees and supervisors with Chrome Zebra’s economic, online harassment training today. Visit chromezebra.com or call 866.241.9927 for more information.
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Interviewing victims, harassers, and witnesses is always challenging.
It is important to remember that a poorly handled interview can escalate a problem or inflame the parties to point of unreasonableness. If this happens to you, expect to pay significant attorney fees to resolve a claim of harassment or discrimination.
Most mistakes are made by overzealous managers, who either want to clean up a charge of harassment or discrimination quickly or make and act on assumptions before even beginning the investigative process. These types of actions may put your business at risk and bring additional charges or retaliation or discrimination.
Use these techniques to mitigate your risk:
1. Begin the investigation immediately
Don’t wait for the gossip mill to get into full swing. In addition this move assures the victim and harasser that you are taking the claim seriously.
2. Conduct all interviews in private
Choose an office location without windows to the curious. Ensure that you will not be disturbed by phone calls, emails, or other company business.
3. Conduct the interview with one person at a time.
Do not bring witnesses into the interview with either the victim or harasser as this can taint the interview process and violate privacy.
4. Sit across a desk from the victim.
Choosing to sit next to the victim or in a less formal setting will communicate a lack of seriousness for the situation.
5. Take copious notes throughout the conversation.
Use either a computer or a pad of paper to take notes and remember to record the date, time and place. This assures the victim that you are paying full attention to the complaint. Remember the EEOC requires all records so you must keep these notes in the event that a charge is filed.
Remember that harassment and discrimination training protects your business and employees. Quality sexual harassment training will reduce the number of claims and time spent resolving them.
Train your employees and supervisors with Chrome Zebra’s economic, online harassment training today. Visit chromezebra.com or call 866.241.9927 for more information.
Dec 6
Retaliation defined: An employer may not fire, demote, harass or otherwise “retaliate” against an individual for filing a charge of discrimination, participating in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposing discrimination.
The three terms are associated with Retaliation are:
An adverse action is an action taken to try to keep someone from opposing a discriminatory practice, or from participating in an employment discrimination proceeding.
Examples:
Note: this does not include petty slights and annoyances, such as stray negative comments in an otherwise positive or neutral evaluation, “snubbing” a colleague, or negative comments that are justified by an employee’s poor work performance or history. Read the rest of this entry »
Sexual Favoritism is defined as unwanted sexual advances which make an employment benefit contingent upon an exchange of sexual favors. Although not a law unto itself, it matches Federal Quid Pro Quo law (this for that).
This type of harassment can occur when employees, who submit to a manager or supervisor’s sexual demands, are rewarded by that manager or supervisor. It is important to note however, that the wronged party(ies) is not the one who submitted, but those who did not and are denied the benefits of the submission.
In other words, employees who are otherwise denied raises or promotions may claim that they were penalized by the sexual attention directed at the favored coworkers.
Examples:
Use of Power
How has the court ruled in these cases?
Harassment by Non-employees is exactly what it sounds like. This is when employees, who are harassed by customers, vendors, temp workers, outside contractors, tec. still retain their rights to a harassment-free workplace. You are currently browsing the archives for the Harassment and Discrimination category.
Chrome Zebra provides economic, online training solutions to support an employer’s harassment prevention training needs. Providing high quality harassment training for both supervisors and employees,
Chrome Zebra provides internet marketing courses that focus on social media marketing. Learn the social media skills and tools to bring your marketing to a new level.
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