Hi All,
I have been approached by a female colleague who has unofficially reported that her colleague( a female) has bad mouthed about her to her husband about her official difference. They seem to be on good terms hence her husband is also friendly with this colleague.
The couple ignored it first time but she complained after the accused did it second time. She wants to put it as official as the accused has been talking about how she is in the office etc.
Can a official inquiry be done treat it as a harassment ?
From India, Mumbai
80I have been approached by a female colleague who has unofficially reported that her colleague( a female) has bad mouthed about her to her husband about her official difference. They seem to be on good terms hence her husband is also friendly with this colleague.
The couple ignored it first time but she complained after the accused did it second time. She wants to put it as official as the accused has been talking about how she is in the office etc.
Can a official inquiry be done treat it as a harassment ?
From India, Mumbai
As a matter of fact, both the female employees need the counselling. Please call them separately and advise, the first one who informed you about the issue, to keep away her husband and further she can start informing the day to day happenings to her husband and keep the intimacy alive. Further call the second one who seems to be friend & colleague of the complainant and advise not to discuss the very personal matters to the strangers. Here you can interpret the meaning of stranger as the spouse of the colleague. If we are involving in some chit-chatting with others we must speak on generic subject and not about the personal of self or opponent, which may cause hurt.
Hope it will work to some extent. Further if the same did not fetch any good result then you can call for any official inquiry.
From India, Kumbakonam
Hope it will work to some extent. Further if the same did not fetch any good result then you can call for any official inquiry.
From India, Kumbakonam
Dear Jhuma,
While Bhaskar has given solution on how to handle the problem at hand, I would like to go little deeper.
Is this a sign of the interpersonal environment in your company? Can it be construed that there is lack of culture of feedback in the company? Imagine for a while, whatever disgruntlement that female employee had, if she had put it in professional manner by having tête-à-tête with her colleague, would it not have strengthened the bond of friendship? Would it not have kept the couple's motivation level same? How come that female employee did not bother about consequences of her revilement?
These are not big incidents but then these incidents are harbinger of conflict, groupism, lack of teamwork etc. The story could be making news or will start making news in the grapevine after couple of weeks or months. This informal communication shapes the organisation's culture. Therefore, I request you to look at the larger picture as well.
The incident calls for training your staffs on office decorum, how to give feedback, how to accept feedback, interpersonal skills etc. If you have conducted training on all these subjects then should it be construed that training efforts have failed? Nevertheless, even after the training also if this incident has happened then the incident merits strong action against the erring employee. This will send a strong message to one and all that training needs to be taken seriously. Training is conducted for implementing the learning in day to day activities and not to be abandoned after stepping out of the training hall.
Badmouthing was on personal or official count, tell the aggrieved employee to put up written application. That is the starting point for your action.
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
From India, Bangalore
While Bhaskar has given solution on how to handle the problem at hand, I would like to go little deeper.
Is this a sign of the interpersonal environment in your company? Can it be construed that there is lack of culture of feedback in the company? Imagine for a while, whatever disgruntlement that female employee had, if she had put it in professional manner by having tête-à-tête with her colleague, would it not have strengthened the bond of friendship? Would it not have kept the couple's motivation level same? How come that female employee did not bother about consequences of her revilement?
These are not big incidents but then these incidents are harbinger of conflict, groupism, lack of teamwork etc. The story could be making news or will start making news in the grapevine after couple of weeks or months. This informal communication shapes the organisation's culture. Therefore, I request you to look at the larger picture as well.
The incident calls for training your staffs on office decorum, how to give feedback, how to accept feedback, interpersonal skills etc. If you have conducted training on all these subjects then should it be construed that training efforts have failed? Nevertheless, even after the training also if this incident has happened then the incident merits strong action against the erring employee. This will send a strong message to one and all that training needs to be taken seriously. Training is conducted for implementing the learning in day to day activities and not to be abandoned after stepping out of the training hall.
Badmouthing was on personal or official count, tell the aggrieved employee to put up written application. That is the starting point for your action.
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
From India, Bangalore
Ms. Jhuma: It is definitely harassment in the eyes of the victim, while the accused may be thinking of having some fun at the expense of another. But since the victim has formally approached the officials concerned, it cannot be brushed aside as simple banter. I would agree with Bhaskar that both the ladies need to be counselled and handled sensitively. I think the accused needs to be foretold of the consequences of badmouthing a colleague and spoiling the coordiality in office. This needs to be tacled properly lest the situation could go out of hand. Every body has respect for the self and their ego cannot be hurt so easily. So this calls for immediate action at your end. KK
From India, Bhopal
From India, Bhopal
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