Receiving a Workplace Harassment Complaint

Answer:

As a skilled Delaware County Business Attorney, I get questions all the time from clients regarding harassment complaints in the workplace. If you have received a complaint from an employee about another coworker’s behavior, whether it’s bullying, sexual advances, general unpleasantness, or yelling and screaming in the workplace, it’s important to encourage the person with the complaint to report it.

If the person with the complaint says, “I didn’t know where to go,” consult your employee manual. The manual is a crucial element in the education of your workplace.

By education in your workplace, it’s good for you to have meetings that will say, “Okay, if this is happening to you, here are your options.” Look in your workbook/employee manual and say, “This is how to deal with it.”

Employers have the obligation to say, “I’ve got to have a process. One, to investigate this and two, once I do the investigation, a process for disciplining individuals involved to make sure it stops.” That must be your goal, to get it stopped.

Your employee manual should set forth the procedure. This deals a lot of times with sexual harassment, bullying in the workplace, or general complaints about harassment. The process is an investigation; you get names, keeping it confidential. Then you do your investigation and reach a conclusion. You must get both sides of the story, interviewing the individual who made the complaint and the alleged perpetrator.

A lot of times you may hear the accused say thinks like:

“Oh, we were just joking around.”
“Oh, that’s just the way we are.”
“I do that all the time.”
“I talk to other girls like this.”
“I talk to other employees like this.”

But that is not good enough. You must establish a baseline as to what is appropriate in the workplace and what is not.

When it comes to conduct pertaining to harassment, bullying, sexual advances, sexual comments, and name calling are unacceptable.

Once you’ve conducted your investigation, you can then resort to your employee discipline policy, which should also be set forth in the manual and say, “This is how we are going to deal with this situation.”

Depending on the facts and circumstances, that discipline can range from suspension, a written warning, a verbal warning, or termination, depending on the seriousness of the allegation and whether there have been previous offenses.

This educational blog was brought to you by experienced Employment Attorney Walter J. Timby. Our law firm proudly represents clients throughout Delaware County, as well as Pennsylvania, the greater Philadelphia area, and New Jersey.

If you have any questions about how handle harassment complaints in the workplace, please contact our Delaware County Business Attorneys for a free case evaluation. Let our experience work for you.