Do you suffer from a hostile workplace environment? If so, these helpful hints will teach you how to tackle it.
Nobody deserves to feel unsafe when they go to work. If you regularly fear being in the office, if you are suffering through the hands of a workplace bully, or even if you experience routine discrimination, then your employer is failing in their duty of care to you. If this discrimination features any protected characteristics – such as your age, race, gender identity, sex, or religion – then you may even be entitled to launch a lawsuit against your employer. Nevertheless, it is important to use all the tools at your disposal to tackle your workplace issues before you take it that far.
This article explains the best ways to take care of workplace hostility. Involvement in office harassment is a crime. Here is how you can treat it.
How to Tackle Workplace Hostility?
When team building simply won’t work anymore, it is time to get to the root of the problem. Tackling workplace hostility starts with good record-keeping. Take notes, record what you can, and build your information piece by piece. All this could be evidenced in the long run. Before you get as far as the court system, though, try these techniques to tackle a nasty work environment.
1 – Keep Notes
The most important tactic you can use is a set of well-kept notes. Recording each incident next to the day, time, and witnesses involved can make it far easier to build an accurate picture of what is taking place. Your manager may find this list useful, but make sure it does not leave your possession. If you do intend to escalate the reports to legal status, you may find this evidence useful.
2 – Workplace Policies
Examine your workplace policies. They may have a system in place that helps escalate these kinds of situations to the right people, such as the HR department. Read any bullying policies closely to find direction on who to report to.
3 – Reporting the Hostility
Take the time to report the incidents and to keep reporting any new incidents that arise. Typically, you ought to involve your own manager, but some companies may have different structures. Make sure you follow company policy so that your lawyer has that information later.
4 – Escalating the Report
If you report hostility to the recommended person or departments and you have no resolution within a timely manner, then you need to escalate the report. Go above your manager’s head or go to the top levels of HR. You may even approach the SME owner to inform them that hostility is taking place. Be sure to record their answers.
5 – The EEOC
If nobody in your workplace can resolve the hostility, then they are failing in their duty of care to you as an employer. You can now go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and ask them to investigate on your behalf. You can report your incidents here.
Remember, you may still launch a lawsuit against your employer or the people causing the hostility, even after the situation is resolved. Speak to a lawyer to find out more.
Still Not Resolved?
If you have tried all the above methods of communicating hostility to your employer and nothing has changed, then it is time to consider the legal route. Contact a hard-working workplace discrimination lawyer to represent you and make sure it puts an end to that hostile working environment.