HR Considerations of the Perils of the ‘Bro’ Culture: How #metoo and #timesup is Changing Workplace Culture (Part 1)

For the last several months, we have been bombarded with accusations of sexual harassment across all professions from the strawberry picker, waitress, US Marine and Academy Award actresses. The American workplace is at a crossroads. Many women feel vindicated and men feel wary of the revelations. Time magazine featured their “Person of the Year” for the 91st time- The Silence Breakers. The hash tag movements, #metoo and #timesup has jump started a cultural revolution that will not go away. There is a sea change and it will impact HR policy and workplace conduct.

The EEOC defines sexual harassment as this:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature can be verbal (jokes, innuendos, suggestive comments) or nonverbal (inappropriate touching, ogling, posters, e-mails, stares at body parts, leering, whistles, brushes against another’s body, and behaviors up to and including sexual assault or rape).

Remember harassment applies across all gender lines. Men can harass men and women; women can harass women and men. In my 30 year experience serving as an expert witness and trainer in the prevention of sexual harassment cases for both the private and public sector, there are concrete guidelines that will help any organization attain a zero tolerance. First, acknowledge not everyone plays by the same rulebook of respect and how we treat people.

For more clarification on what is and what isn’t sexual harassment, it is important to understand that a legally defined hostile environment based on sexual harassment is not an environment in which the boss is mad, angry, or mean toward you. I often get questions during training discussions asking, if an employee doesn’t get along with the boss or other coworkers, wouldn’t that be a hostile environment? Yes, it may be hostile or difficult and unfriendly, but unless the unwelcome behaviors are repeated and of a sexual nature, it is not legally considered a hostile environment based on sexual harassment.