Workplace Bullying in Tennessee
|
HR
Management |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Is workplace bullying and mobbing in TN allowed, and if not what can a person do to have the situation stopped? I have already complained to HR and the manager, but it continues.
“Bullying” is a broad term that can cover a wide range of actions from beating someone up or threatening them with bodily harm, to not speaking to them, so it’s hard to answer your question.
I’m not clear on what you mean by “mobbing.” It’s unfortunate when a number of employees at a workplace treat a coworker badly. But, it’s not necessarily against the law, in Tennessee or elsewhere.
A recent symposium at Wayne State University discussed this issue. Currently, disrespectful comments at work are legal, as long as they aren’t based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.
HR managers report that bullying at some level goes on in 3 out of 10 workplaces. The presenters argued that everyone is entitled to respect at work under the law. A hostile work environment should not be legal, even if discrimination is not involved. Unfortunately, at this time there is no federal or Tennessee law requiring that employees be treated with respect.
Many company handbooks have policies that require employees to treat each other with respect. If this is the case, you should be able to convince the HR department to discipline employees who are being rude to you.
If someone at work is making threats against an employee, or laying hands on him/her, then that is a matter for the police.
If an employee is treated differently because of their race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age or because they have a disability, then that is likely illegal discrimination.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that discrimination is illegal when it is based on race, color, religion, national origin or sex. It’s also illegal to discriminate against someone with a disability, or someone over 40. If you think that your poor treatment is related to any of those reasons, then you should certainly complain to the Human Resources department.
If the HR department can’t or won’t handle the problem, then the next step would be filing a complaint with the EEOC, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Discrimination based on race can occur even when the offenders are of the same race as the victim. Discrimination based on sex can occur when the offenders are the same sex as the victim.
Good managers and Human Resource departments don’t allow unfair treatment of employees by others. They address any problems with attendance or performance directly with the employee. However, not every manager is good at his/her job. Nor is there any law that people who work together must be nice to each other.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 6:06 pm and is filed under
Human Resources Management.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “Workplace Bullying in Tennessee”
Leave a Reply
-
Ask a Question
Categories
- Attendance Management (1013)
- Benefits (1495)
- Compensation (1584)
- Employment Training (308)
- Hiring and Staffing (800)
- Human Resources Management (2726)
- Labor Laws (1097)
- Management / Leadership Development (339)
- Performance Management (207)
- Structural Development (41)
- Termination (554)
- Workplace Health & Safety (256)
- Workplace Management (424)
Blogroll
Archives
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
Recent Posts
-
How many hours must be accrued to be eligible
March 18th, 2010 -
fmla for child
March 18th, 2010 -
HR confidentiality
March 18th, 2010 -
smoke breaks
March 17th, 2010 -
Payment of vacation and sick leave upon employee quitting
March 17th, 2010 -
PTO Plan — Discriminatory?
March 17th, 2010 -
Personnel Files
March 17th, 2010
Pages
August 9th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I am being bullied by my supervisor and upper management allows her abusive behavior. In fact, she has been bullying people for years. People have complained, quit their job or transfered because of her abuse. I am tired of her abuse and plan on making a stand- even if it means I get fired. I am researching about bullying and what my options are. Washington State has a great web page that defines bullying and explains some options on how to handle it. It is worth looking at- especially if you are a victim of being bullied.
August 9th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Thanks Lacey!~ Caitlin