Best Practices: Addressing Sexual Harassment in a Small or Mid-Sized Companies

Office culture includes a complicated web of relationships, especially in small or medium sized companies. In every team there are gender politics, power dynamics, social mores and structural hierarchies to consider, but small or medium sized companies often rely on in-network or referral based hiring, at least for a while, which adds another dynamic to consider.

This type of recruiting makes it common for there to be family clusters or social clusters of some kind (perhaps an over-representation of alumni from the same university, or church group) in small or medium sized companies. Some of the pros and cons may be obvious:

Pro: "Family dynamic" that feels safe and fun... at least to the people in the "in-group."

Con: "Family dynamic" that feels intimidating and maybe even discriminatory to the people not in the in-group.

Do you have a lot of fear on this subject? If you're looking for advice on how to avoid unintentional harassment, follow that link to read an article I've written entirely on that subject.

Why It Matters:

One of the un-intended consequences for companies is that a "family culture" muddies the waters when it comes to sexual harassment. For example:

• Employees may have a hard time reporting inappropriate behavior because of the real or perceived social consequences of reporting someone they know or are related to.
• "In-group" employees may have an easier time empathizing with the harasser if they've known each other in a personal capacity. They may justify inappropriate behavior, because they believe the perpetrator was "trying to be funny," or "trying to be complimentary."
• Victims may feel unclear about where it's safe to report their situation, or with whom it's safe to disclose this vulnerable information.
• Teams may have an easier time acclimating to "Locker Room Cultures" that may not be representative of stated company mission and values, and are certainly not protected under the law.

There are very real legal consequences for these dynamics. But even if your company never faces a lawsuit, you still risk business and social consequences that matter to the soul of the company, and also to the bottom line:

• Your employee engagement, or how committed and enthusiastic your employees are about working for you, could be effected
• Fantastic employees who've been victimized could leave, and if the problem isn't rectified, you could continue losing people who's creativity and contributions are desperately needed
• You could have trouble recruiting new employees or even attracting clients as your reputation gets tainted to others in your network/community

When your intentions for your culture and the execution of it don't line up, bad things happen. So here's what you can do:

1. Make sure every person at your company has a legal and practical understanding of harassment and sexual harassment.
2. Make sure your company has ethical policies (not just ideas - policies that have accountability measures backing them) in place for ensuring your team is held to a higher standard than "Don't do stuff that's illegal." This will also help reduce instances of unintended harassment. This doesn't have to feel like dropping the hammer - frame this around your cultural values, so that you're speaking from a perspective of what we want rather than what we don't want.
3. If there are sub-cultures within your company that have adopted the locker room ethos, address this head on by establishing that those kinds of jokes and behaviors will not be tolerated. Depending on behaviors you've seen, you may need to right the ship by having a meeting with required attendance where this is addressed, and where the new policies are announced.
4. Write your accountability measures from a standpoint of victim support rather than perpetrator consequences to make sure your employees feel supported by leadership/HR if they're in a situation where those consequences are merited. It's more likely that this document will exist to support someone who's been victimized than that it will scare a potential perpetrator straight.
5. Say out loud that your company values the safety and dignity of all employees more than any one person's ego. If you've relied on in-network or referral based hiring, make especially sure that employees not hired through those means are clear that they have equal status and protection. You can't assume they know -- say it clearly, check in often and follow through on policy/procedure tweaks that get suggested in those check in meetings.

What You Can Do If You Are a Victim:

If you're working in a "family culture" company, and you're being harassed (especially if it's someone in the "in-group") it can feel isolating and hopeless. I know this from first hand experience!

1. Know that you have the legal right to a safe and dignifying workplace - the law doesn't care that "Gary has a weird sense of humor." Check out the EEOC's website to gain an understanding of the law and what your legal recourse can be, if you so choose. Essentially, you are protected from unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, unwelcome words, behavior, images of a sexual nature, and other sexually charged interferences with your work day. You are protected from this kind of behavior from any employee of your employer and even from this kind of behavior at the hands of clients/customers as well (read the law for a better understanding of when bad behavior becomes illegal).
2. Be clear that the words/behavior are unwanted. In addition to setting healthy boundaries and protecting yourself, being explicitly clear about this is important if you eventually decide to build a legal case.
3. Go to HR - you can choose to file a claim or not. HR can help you determine appropriate next steps to be sure you are safe at work.
4. File a police report. If you're not getting the support you need at work, and the situation merits, you have every right to contact the police.
5. File a claim with EEOC. ... But understand that bad behavior is not generally protected under the law. To have a claim at this level, the behavior must be "severe and pervasive" in the eyes of a "reasonable person," and/or enduring it must have become a "condition of continued employment." You'll need significant proof and documentation. Check out the link above for more information.

The law protects you from intimidation or retaliation as a result of your decision to file a claim in cases of harassment or sexual harassment. It may happen, but if it does, your employer is in violation of the law and there can be legal consequences for that behavior as well.

If You're NOT the Victim:

Harassment is a violation of everyone's right to a safe and dignifying work environment, because if one person is made to be unsafe at work, it sets the precedent for anyone to be unsafe at work. So even if you're not the victim, you can still go to HR, the police, or the EEOC for guidance or to file a complaint.

To be clear, in order to file a claim with the EEOC as a peripheral victim, you'd need to be able to prove that a "reasonable person" would find the circumstances hostile and/or intimidating OR enduring the situation must have become a condition of your continued employment, not just the direct victim's.

In order to broach the subject effectively, you must do 3 things successfully:

1. Be clear that the behavior is unwelcome and inappropriate - it can be easy to sacrifice clarity on the altar of pre-existing relationships, but when you do this you put both your company and your co-worker at risk for legal consequences and open the door for more co-workers to be victimized.
2. Offer this information to your colleague in a manner that this feedback is receivable, thereby increasing the chances for improved behavior in the future, and
3. Support the person who has been directly victimized without making him or her feel additionally vulnerable and unsafe.

I'll be offering several tips and pointers on how to handle this type of confrontation in my next article, so stay tuned for that if you've read to this point and are committed to being a culture protagonist when it comes to this workplace harassment.

About the Author. I've spent the last month launching a new training in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania in which I teach teams to use improv skills for avoiding sexual harassment at work, and confronting it when they see or hear inappropriate behavior from their colleagues.

Since the rise of the #MeToo movement, I have felt compelled to address this topic in a way that encourages participation and understanding rather than defensiveness and boredom (Let's be honest... mandatory trainings don't have a high batting average for actually connecting with employees!).

I have thoroughly enjoyed creating a sexual harassment training rooted in improv skills, that equips teams to do more than just avoid illegal behavior, but equips them to build healthy, meaningful workplace relationships rooted in trust and the mutual desire to build something amazing.

If you are a leader or an HR professional interested in learning more about bringing this training to your office, you can inquire about scheduling and availability here. Recertification credits through HRCI are available for this training.