In one recent court case, an employee complained that she was regularly harassed by co-workers because of her national origin.

She was originally from Mexico and spoke Spanish as her first language. Other employees had problems with her limited English — she claimed they would often respond to her comments by yelling, “What? What?” or “I do not understand you.”

The woman complained to her boss about how she was being treated, but no action was ever taken. The manager’s reaction: They were just voicing legitimate complaints about her communication skills.

But she didn’t see it that way — she sued the company for allowing a hostile work environment.

The court agreed. The employee demonstrated she knew enough English to do her job. Her co-workers clearly weren’t making legitimate complaints, they were taunting and harassing her.

The company failed to have the case thrown out and will now face a costly jury trial.

The lesson for managers: If it looks like employees are giving someone a hard time because of anything related to race, religion, gender or ethnicity, it’s your duty to step in and stop it.

Cite: Navarro v. U.S. Tsubaki, Inc.

An employee complained to an upper-level manager that her supervisor had sexually harassed her. The response she got: The manager asked for witnesses who could corroborate or other evidence of wrongdoing.

She had nothing to offer, so the company decided it couldn’t do anything.

Eventually, however, another employee complained about the same supervisor. This time, the company got enough proof to investigate and then fire him.

But it didn’t end there: The original complainant sued, claiming she was subjected to more harassment after the company failed to investigate her complaint.

So was the manager’s response to the complaint appropriate? Yes, according to the judge. Companies can’t be expected to automatically believe every complaint they receive — that’s how innocent supervisors get mistakenly fired.

Without anything more to go on, there wasn’t much the manager could do.

Cite: Adams v. O’Reilly Automotive, Inc.

An employee sued over the state of her company’s bathrooms.

The employer provided single-occupancy unisex facilities. The woman complained that the bathroom she had access to was frequently dirty and “sometimes occupied when she wanted to use it.”

She repeatedly made complaints and asked the company to install gender-segregated restrooms, but nothing was done by the company.

The employee filed a claim for gender bias, saying the lavatory’s condition created an uncomfortable situation for female employees.

The company argued that her complaint wasn’t severe enough to create an adverse employment action or a hostile work environment. Moreover, men were just as affected as women by the bathroom situation.

Who won?

The court agreed with the employer and flushed the case.

Cite: Dauer v. Verizon Communications, Inc.

An employee complained to her supervisor that a co-worker had been sexually harassing her. The allegations were pretty severe: The woman claimed he consistently made sexual comments, touched her inappropriately and asked her to view pornography on his office computer.

The company suspended the co-worker and investigated. The conclusion: All the allegations were true. The man was suspended without pay and warned that he’d be fired if the conduct continued.

But the harassment didn’t stop and the woman complained again. The co-worker was suspended and warned a second time.

After that, the employee quit and sued the company for failing to put a stop to the harassment.

The company argued that it took appropriate disciplinary action in response to her complaints. But the judge didn’t buy it.

Two complaints should have been enough for the co-worker to lose his job. The woman testified that she was no longer comfortable coming to work with him around, and the company’s actions didn’t convince him to change his behavior.

What’s the best way to handle employees who’ve been accused of sexual harassment? There’s no easy answer. But the courts look to see if the company does something that could reasonably be expected to stop the harassment.

In this case, the company’s empty threats weren’t enough.

Cite: Engel v. Rapid City School District

Three women claimed their company’s operations manager constantly subjected them to graphic language and requests for sexual favors.

The kicker: They alleged that the company’s HR manager witnessed the behavior and failed to take any action. Also, the women claimed, they were retaliated against after filing a complaint.

The end result: The company settled with the women for a total of $485,000.

Lesson: It’s important for everyone in the company to be aware of their responsibilities when they witness prohibited behavior.

Cite: EEOC, et al. v. Fred Meyer Stores, Inc.

Most HR pros would agree that conducting harassment training is no walk in the park. Here are the most common problems companies face, and strategies that will reduce an organization’s legal liability:

1. Getting buy-in from management

Nearly all HR pros have heard the comments from supervisors when it’s time for mandatory training: “I’m too busy for this,” “I’ve heard all this before,” “How’s this going to help me do my job better?” It’s a problem most companies face.

The solution: Start at the top, says Stephen Anderson, CEO of Anderson-davis, Inc., and a trainer with more than 33 years of experience. Visible support from top management is necessary before training will positively impact the workplace.

Before the training begins, run through the program with top-level management so they understand the value (reduced legal risk, increased productivity, lower turnover, etc.).

Also:

• Be sure top management holds supervisors accountable if they don’t support or attend the training
• Have a senior executive introduce the program and make it clear the company takes the issue seriously, and
• Make the training mandatory for all employees, not just managers.

2. Keeping the audience engaged

The truth is, if your managers really have already heard everything you’re telling them, no one will pay attention and the training won’t have an impact.

The key, says Anderson, is to challenge the audience.

Look at subtle forms of harassment and ask managers how they’d handle situations they may not have thought about. For example:

• You witness harassment involving employees who don’t work for you
• An employee complains but asks to you to “keep it between you and me”
• You overhear two Latino employees tell derogatory jokes about Latinos
• Two employees try to guess a co-worker’s sexual orientation by asking personal questions.

One tactic that doesn’t work: threatening managers without offering help. Telling supervisors they can lose their jobs or be sued individually can get their attention, but it may do more harm than good.

It’s more important to teach managers how to intervene in harassment situations, and how to properly work with HR.

3. Measuring the impact

Gauging whether the training’s had a positive impact is often the toughest part of an anti-harassment program. But here are some key factors to measure:

• No increase in false complaints — that could be a sign of an ineffective program for employees.
• A decrease in hostile work environment situations, and
• An increase in communication from supervisors to HR.

Caution: Having no complaints at all doesn’t necessarily mean a workplace is free from harassment. An increase in legitimate complaints could be a positive sign that previously existing problems are now being handled properly.

The anti-harassment policy.

In one recent case, an employee sued after enduring several incidents of harassment by her supervisor. The conduct she complained about was pretty severe. She alleged that he:

• used profanity on a daily basis, including slurs directed specifically at women in the office
• asked her to stay in his hotel room during a business trip
• stood uncomfortably close to her and breathed down her neck, and
• touched himself inappropriately in her presence.

However, it took several months before she filed a complaint. She eventually went to HR after receiving a bonus that was less than she expected.

The company investigated. No witnesses corroborated the allegations, so HR decided there were no grounds to fire the supervisor.

The employee was offered several options to solve the situation, including transferring her to a different office, sending the manager to counseling and bringing in an industrial psychologist to monitor his behavior.

She turned them all down and sued the company for allowing the harassment.

The company argued all the appropriate actions were taken after the woman complained — it wasn’t the HR manager’s fault that no one knew what was happening sooner. All employees received a policy requiring harassment victims to notify HR or a manager about any problems immediately.

The employee said she was aware of the policy but didn’t file a complaint sooner because she was afraid of damaging her career and decided to “go along to get along.”

Who won? The court ruled in favor of the company. Put simply, it couldn’t have taken action until the employee filed a claim. If she had complained sooner, the company could’ve acted sooner.

Also, without proof that the allegations were true, the company was right not to fire the supervisor. Employers don’t need to make those decisions based only on “he said, she said” types of investigations.

The bottom line: Just because one manager behaved inappropriately didn’t mean the company allowed or condoned sexual harassment. The judge noted that harassment can only be prevented if the victims cooperate by taking advantage of the protective measures offered by their employers.

Cite: Baldwin v. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama

The EEOC gives three reasons employees may have for not complaining — and what companies can do to make sure employees have a chance to voice their concerns:

1. “I thought I’d get in trouble if I complained” – Fear of retaliation is a common reason employees give for not telling HR or their managers about harassment, according to the EEOC. That’s why a good harassment policy will include provisions against retaliation and make it clear that employees will not be punished for raising their concerns.
2. “The process was too difficult” – Another reason victims may not complain is that the reporting procedure made it too difficult — for example, if the designated contacts are hard to get a hold of, or if the language is confusing about who employees should complain to. Courts look at harassment policies to see if there are any “unreasonable obstacles” to filing a grievance. If there are, the company could be held liable even if the employee never complained.
3. “I didn’t think it would do any good” – Employees may also decide not to complain about harassment if the company’s policy requires them to report the conduct directly to the harassing supervisor. For that reason, employers should provide multiple avenues for reporting.

When the situation involves harassment, you’d better find time to deal with it.

The case involved a woman who was harassed by an employee in another department.

Among other things, the co-worker e-mailed pornographic images to the woman and called her on her office phone, trying to engage in sexually explicit conversations.

When she complained to her boss, she said he told her that he was too busy dealing with an angry client to do anything at the moment.

She approached him a few more times, but he told her he’d get back to her after the mess with the customer was cleaned up. Meanwhile, the harassment continued.

After about a week, the manager finally did something. The co-worker was issued a warning and was eventually fired for ignoring it.

The woman sued, claiming the supervisor failed to respond to her complaints soon enough.

The court ruled in her favor. The boss may have been busy, but he should have responded to the employee’s complaints.

If he had forwarded the complaint to HR immediately, the company could have avoided a lot of trouble.

Cite: Cerdeira v. Martindale-Hubbell

1. Do forward all complaints to HR. Some charges are filed with HR directly, but most often, frontline managers get the first word. When that’s the case, they should tell HR about it immediately.
   Don’t investigate on your own. Some supervisors may want to look into the situation as soon as they learn about it, but matters should be handled by someone who isn’t directly involved with the employees in the dispute.
2. Do work with HR to separate the accused and the accuser, figuring out whether to transfer one person to another part of the company, place the alleged harasser on a paid, non-disciplinary suspension, etc.
   Don’t take those actions without HR’s help. The key is to avoid making it seem like one side is being punished. If the complainant thinks he or she is being disciplined, that can lead to a retaliation complaint. And until the investigation is finished, the accused harasser has the same rights as any other company employee.
3. Do discuss the complaint only with those who need to know about it. Spreading the word to everyone can leave the accuser open to retaliation from co-workers, and the accused may claim defamation if the the complaint was false.
   Don’t promise confidentiality. Many harassment victims will ask a manager to “keep it between you and me.” But it’s impossible to conduct an investigation while keeping the parties anonymous.