Hostile Environment???

joyce

At a recent Exit Interview an employee explained that one of the reasons among others that she was leaving was due to the fact that the Supervisor of her office frequently displayed affection with male visitors in front of staff. Doesn't this fall under hostile enviroment? And what do we do now?

Gar

There are a number of things you can do. First, if you haven't done so, obtain from the former employee the names of the staff whom the supervisor is supposed to have acted inappropriately in front of. Find out who the visitor's were and why the employee is only now raising this matter. Next, do some research (personnel and other files, mostly) and determine whether this supervisor has acted inappropriately before. I would also look at the records of the former employee to make sure she isn't just a disgruntled person "telling tales out of school." I would then speak to the supervisor in private and get his/her side of the story. My next moves would depend on the supervisor's responses and whether you feel they are honest/truthful. Depending on what actually happened and who was involved, this may not be a case of environmental harassment but it may certainly be inappropriate behavior. Be extremely careful. These kinds of situations can blow up into big headaches.

CuriousG

That term "displayed affection" is a pretty vague one at best. Are we talking a brief hug, or peck on the check, or something more physical and sexual in nature? I would want to know when this behavior began, according to the ex-employee, and who else may have witnessed it. If possible, get this former employee to put their statement in writing (often if this is just a "sour grapes" type thing the compliant will evaporate when your go for written details.)

Assuming you get a proper understanding of the exact behavior being spoken of, you then need to decide whether to pursue a more indepth investigation.

Down_the_Middle

Perhaps the best way for you to determine if hostile work environment existed is to acknowledge that this type of harassment is typically based on a pervasive and unfavorable work environment. Isolated incidents do not typically warrant HWE and the burden on the employer (when doing your internal investigation) is to determine how widespread and for how long has the behavior existed. It would be important to know if any employees complained about being so uncomfortable with the supervisor's behavior, or was this tolerated (and therefore accepted as welcomed activity). Employees generally have to experience work performance problems b/4 HWE can successfully be proven in court. Congress said the work environment is not a pristene environment and should not be expected to be sterile. The difficulty comes in finding that middle ground where someone's behavior rises to HWE.

Gillian

Both previous responses are accurate. An issue which you should evaluate when you ask why the conduct was not reported earlier is the environment which you have. In my experience (including as an expert witness in these kinds of cases) it is not unusual for non-reporting to occur when the environment is not conducive to accepting complaints and then dealing with them. It is my opinion that it is common for employees to quit rather than complain. Complaining is a hassle, especially if there is some sort of subtle or otherwise penalty for doing so.

What you have may or may not be a "hostile environment". It depends on the circumstances and there is a difference between the generic definition - ours - and the legal definition as it would be used in court. A hostile environment from a legal perspective is something which is severe enough to negatively impact working conditions.