Our workplace has a tradition of teasing and pranks. “All in good fun,” say the workers, but I think there are harassment suits building up in some employees’ minds as this continues. How can I get the message across to stop this behavior?
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Here’s what you had to say:
- We faced this problem the hard way. A young woman who had appeared to be joining in on the “fun”—which involved some pretty heavy sexual teasing—filed a lawsuit alleging a hostile work environment. She said the teasing was demeaning, and that when she tried not to be involved, her hours were cut and her bonus disappeared. We settled the suit and have revved up our training to make employees aware that inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated. — R.B.
- Our company found that we had to enlist the top management, including our president, to spend time with the workers talking about respect, diversity, and “the team.” Then we told our managers what we expected from them. They didn’t like it at first—having to tell workers to stop the traditional joke-telling, for example— but being able to quote the company’s president emboldened them. — M.C.
- We found that “exclusion” became a problem after we tried to deal with a situation. After we told everyone that off-color jokes were prohibited, a group of guys would get together, exclude the women, and tell their same old jokes. We had to expand our training to let them know that such behavior wasn’t in line with the spirit of our policy. — K.J.