05.18.09
Posted in Resources at 9:48 pm by normarae2008
A recent report released in April of 2009 by the Southern Poverty Law Center illustrates some troubling survey results featuring 500 low income Latinos – including legal residents, undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens from five separate locations in the South. The locations were Nashville, Charlotte, New Orleans, rural southern Georgia, and cities in northern Alabama.
The survey shows that many of these employees were subject to discrimination and violations of civil rights and other workplace abuses. They also faced poor working conditions, were cheated out of wages, and denied basic safety and health protections.
The report clearly indicated that reform legislation is needed in order to protect these victims from labor and civil rights violations. Many of these victims, like most victims of workplace harassment, do not file complaints for fear of retribution, or termination of employment. For more information on this report, please go to www.splcenter.org, and review the full study titled “Under Fire: Life for Low-Income Latinos In The South.”
Permalink
05.08.09
Posted in Resources at 11:05 pm by normarae2008
How to Videos & Articles: eHow.com
Permalink
Posted in Resources at 10:48 pm by normarae2008
I wrote some articles on ehow regarding new approaches to sexual harassment training, and sexual harassment policy development. I plan to write additional articles in the future. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered, please write to me. You can find my articles on my site or on ehow under their Business section. Thanks.
Permalink
05.04.09
Posted in Resources at 1:45 am by normarae2008
This site began as an effort to prevent workplace harassment. Unfortunately, harassment comes in many forms and is not gender specific. Although much of our focus has been on sexual harassment, it’s important to note that workplace harassment includes a variety of offenses that we’ve yet to cover in this blog. I intend to open this topic and expand this blog to include all forms of workplace issues, and allow our readers to raise experiences, questions, or comments related to all forms of workplace offenses.
I was recently contacted by a wonderful woman and documentary producer named Beverly Peterson, who asked if I’d share two of her documentaries with our readers. As you’ll see in her short documentaries (one featured above), the women were the victims of harassment and were treated with emotional abuse, workplace bullying, isolation, and other highly-disturbing conduct that should not be tolerated in the work environment. In the 28 years I’ve been managing Human Resources, I, too, have occasionally confronted a manager who believed he or she was above the law (or for that matter, company policy), and was able to write their own doctrine with respect to the treatment of human beings. The only reason these individuals are successful is that companies fail to address the problem. For a variety of reasons, bad or ineffective managers continue to mistreat their employees through workplace misconduct and employees pay the price. Some employees simply leave the company — others try to seek resolution to their problem through the Human Resources department or other mediation groups. But some employees suffer through the harassment because they cannot afford to leave or lose their jobs due to the economy and they fear retaliation if they raise a complaint.
There aren’t too many “bullying” laws that I’m aware of, but bad managers can be dealt with by an effective corporation with strong values and a good employee policy manual. Awareness and education is key to understanding and addressing all forms of harassment, so I encourage our readers to visit Beverly Peterson’s site at http://nojobisworththis.com. View the documentaries and share your thoughts with us.
Together we can work towards ending harassment in the workplace. It’s a lot of hard work, but it needs to be tackled.
Norma Rae
Permalink
03.31.09
Posted in Resources at 4:42 pm by normarae2008
I had a question regarding Sexual Harassment Training for managers and supervisors. In California, and for companies based outside of California with operations in California, AB 1825 was signed into law on September 30, 2004 by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This new law requires all companies which employ more than 50 employees to provide supervisors with 2 hours of sexual harassment training every two years. The first round of training had to be completed by January 1, 2006.
The 50 or more employees includes contractors and temporary employees. It’s worth mentioning again, that if a company is headquartered in another state but has employees operating in California, no matter how few, it is required to offer the training. There were some challenges to the bill by out-of-state employers who have less than 50 employees actually based in California, but the California Housing Commission ruled that the total number of employees working for the company determined whether or not AB 1825 was required, not the number physically located in the state of California. In addition, they ruled it is better to be safe than sorry, so it’s a wise business decision to train every supervisor rather than face the prospects of being out of compliance.
This law has also been adopted in other states, and has generated hundreds of hours of training programs. New hires must be trained within six months of hire, and government compliance must be strictly adhered to. Companies who fail to meet this legally required training could face critical penalties in the event of a sexual harassment complaint.
Regardless of which state you are from, does your company offer sexual harassment training to your managers and supervisors? Does it offer training to all employees? If you want to find out about sexual harassment training, the first step is to contact your Human Resources or Personnel Department, and your department Supervisor to learn more about company programs. If your company does not offer training, contact us for more resources on how to initiate sexual harassment awareness, education and training.
Permalink
03.03.09
Posted in Resources at 7:24 pm by normarae2008
I received an e-mail from a young reader last night. I’ll protect her confidentiality and not mention her name, but her story is an important one. She’s a teenager, and met a man on the internet who began saying and doing things that made her uncomfortable. While looking for guidance she found my website, and wrote me an email.
I gave her some immediate advice — talk to her parents, inform her school authorities, and contact the police. She also shut down all internet contact with the man, and said she was going to notify the proper authorities about the incident. Her e-mail to me took courage, and her experience is a further sign that we have to be careful in all of our dealings on the internet. We never know who we are communicating with.
Teenagers: you shouldn’t feel ashamed or embarrassed if someone tries to take advantage of you — it’s not your fault. But listen to your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, or sound right, report your experience to your parents, or your clergy, school or police. And pay attention to those school safety assemblies, because they offer up great tips on internet safety and security.
I checked in on my young reader today to see how she’s doing, and to make sure she’s reported her experience to the proper authorities. Thanks to her courageous steps, hopefully she’ll help stop one bad guy from stalking young women.
To all young readers, and to everyone using the internet, be smart users. It’s a wonderful tool, but be mindful of your safety at all times. If you have similar experiences you’d like to share, or if you have questions about this topic, please write to me. Thanks.
Permalink
12.31.08
Posted in Resources at 1:49 am by normarae2008
If you think you’ve been harassed, start preparing your records and documentation. Even if you decide not to file a complaint, you need to document every incident while your memory is fresh. You never know what the future may bring, so take the time to start a notebook or journal and include every detail you can recall. Your records should include the following:
A detailed account of each incident that occurred. Include the name(s) of the individual(s) involved, location, date and time of the incidents, and list any potential witnesses.
Provide details covering exactly what occurred. Do not summarize. It’s important that you allow your memory to take you back through each incident and relive the experience, no matter how difficult it may be, in order to capture exactly what happened. Describe what you were wearing, along with the harasser(s) and any other witnesses as best as you can recall. Also, describe the location in as much detail as possible.
Capture the statements made during the incident(s). What was said to you? Who said it? What tone was used? Was foul or offensive language used? Write it down. Describe the statements to the fullest extent of your ability to remember.
Was unwanted touching involved? Describe it. I know this is painful to recall, but if you file a complaint you’ll need to walk a third party through your story, and you need to be prepared. The more time you dedicate to thorough documentation, the easier it will be to present your experience. And the more prepared you are, the more credible you may be as a direct witness.
After you’ve written down any and all incidents of harassment in minute detail, gather your performance reviews dating back at least 2-3 years. Also, if you have copies of any commendations for a job well-done on any special projects or events make copies of those as well. Secure promotion or merit increase data going back 2-3 years as well.
If you’ve made any complaints about any individuals and/or your superiors make a record of those complaints.
If you have any e-mails, memos, or voice mails from the alleged harassers or other written communications that support your harassment complaint make copies immediately and place them with these other documents in a confidential and secure location, preferably at home. Do not keep these confidential records at your workplace.
If for any reason you feel the need to see a therapist or doctor regarding the alleged harassment maintain copies of your medical records and any medical bills you were required to pay for those services.
To support your privacy and confidentiality, it is strongly advised that you do not discuss or disclose your complaint with any coworkers other than the Human Resources department or other Grievance Organization in your company. These types of complaints create a life of their own in the rumor mill and you can become the subject of rumors that can be highly destructive. For your sake, you are encouraged to keep this problem close to your vest until you can properly file a complaint using Company procedures.
If you have further questions on Record Keeping and preparing your documentation, please write to me at Normarae2008@gmail.com, or leave a post on this blog.
Permalink
12.18.08
Posted in Resources at 6:32 pm by normarae2008
I want to share a recent inquiry I received from a reader without violating her rights to privacy and anonymity. I’ll try to briefly review some of her story’s headlines while protecting her confidentiality, because I think her story is replicated in many offices around the country each year.
In essence, she suffered unwelcome sexual “touching” by a co-worker while working. She asked him to stop. Later she had to travel to another part of her office building with the offending employee and asked that a third employee travel with them, as she did not want to be alone with the harasser. She mentioned the unfortunate incident to the third individual.
Before our reader had a chance to take any sort of action on her own, the third individual reported the incident to the reader’s Department Manager, who in turn made arrangements to report the entire incident to Human Resources. Our reader wrote to me and asked what her rights were, as she wanted to talk with the original harasser independently and handle the situation on her own.
My comments: First of all, I’m not a lawyer, but I have over 20 years of HR experience. I suggested to the reader that she work with her department manager and the HR department to resolve the matter together. I also told her that once her management and HR are notified of an alleged sexual harassment incident, they are obligated by law and by company policy to act quickly to respond to and investigate the complaint. It’s important that she fully cooperate with their investigation, but she can also notify them that she’d like to play a role in meeting with the alleged harasser to explain her disappointment in his actions and that she’d like him to discontinue such actions in the future. The EEOC encourages victims to take those steps when such actions are at all possible without further complicating the matter.
Secondly, it’s important that victims of alleged harassment keep such incidents confidential. Disclosing such incidents to co-workers runs the high risk of being shared with other workers, and soon you lose control of the confidentiality factor completely. My best advise is to keep these matters quiet. Discuss them only with your management and Human Resources — this is for your own protection.
My last e-mail from the reader was quite positive — she was going to meet with her HR department and express her desires on how she’d like to work closely with them to resolve this case. Hopefully things will go well. I will report back on her progress and how this case resolves.
For further reading consult eeoc.gov/
Normarae
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
