JUNE 25, 2008

       Many things we do around the office are harassment and could potentially get us fired.

       Last week I commented about personal usage of office equipment and how a lot of the things we do are against company policies. Prior to writing that column I received an e-mail from a teenager who said he was fired from his restaurant job for harassment. We’ll call him Jordan.

       Jordan wrote to me asking if I’d ever heard of joking around with co-workers as being harassment. I imagined extreme cases where people are singled out and picked on and bullied. Through a series of e-mails it came to light that both of us really didn’t know what constitutes workplace harassment. I did some research and Jordan and I were both intrigued to learn the provincial government’s definition.

       While most of us view little jabs at our colleagues as something fun and funny, they are actually illegal. So commenting on somebody’s wacky outfit or new bad haircut is a no-no. On the surface everyone is laughing and thinking it’s humorous, but even if someone in earshot – not even part of the conversation – finds it offensive, it is considered harassment just because the involved parties are making somebody, anybody, in the office uncomfortable.

       Further to that, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure everybody feels welcome in the office. The offended employee has the right to stay off site – and be paid – until such time as he or she is comfortable enough to return to the workplace and knows it will be a harassment-free environment.

       So back to Jordan’s story. What did he do that was so bad? Jordan says he “…was joking around with one of my friends and kind of mumbled under my breath that I called her a bitch.” He continued, “It was just somebody else [who] was around that went running to the manager and complained about me.”

       This begs the question: Did Jordan get fair warning of his offense before being terminated? His response: “We had a staff meeting before that talked about name calling” which was the only mention of the offending actions.

       Jordan’s initial e-mail to me asked advice on what he should do and if the termination was justified (in my opinion only). When I sat and thought about it, I came to the realization that, much like last week’s column, yes, I should have been fired plenty of times for workplace harassment. When you think about it, almost anything we say can be misunderstood and if someone doesn’t “get” what you are saying or if they don’t like you, you could be in trouble.

       This makes me want to sit at my desk all day and not talk. But I’m sure that would be misconstrued as me giving the silent treatment, thus being harassment by making people uncomfortable.