Management's latest worry: nonsexual harassment

Physician Executive,  June, 1995  by Marilyn Moats Kennedy

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Time was when top management and its acolytes in human resources didn't really care. They'd say "there, there," but, unless the abuse was physical, they'd take no action.

A new standard is emerging, ahead of the law. Companies are showing genuine concern, i.e., they are firing abusive managers and citing specific objections with clients. Part of this stems from having refused to take sexual harassment seriously until victims got sizable monetary damages. Organizations want to avoid that kind of legal vulnerability at all costs. As one hospital CEO said, "There are too many lawyers with nothing to do. Some day soon, one will figure out a way to make a strong legal case for punishing employee abuse. It's cheaper to fire the perpetrators or confront the client before that happens."

Individual workers don't have to choose between abuse and unemployment. The two best ways to confront the crude, rude, and abusive are sanctioned by Miss Manners, who suffers from neither garden variety rudeness nor abuse. When someone attacks, don't defend. Instead say, "What did you say?" or "I beg your pardon." The strategy is to let the perpetrator's words linger in the air so he or she hears just how ugly what he or she said really was. The second strategy is to ask for further explanation. "You said Could you elaborate?" The more an abuser talks the more he or she is likely to recognize he or she is out of line. Sarcasm and biting back don't work. They escalate rather than contain the conflict.

There is always a lag between legal recognition and remedy of a problem and the suffering that problem provokes. Victims need to let others know how they feel. Perpetrators need to know that the axe falls swiftly and without notice these days - a message only top management can deliver.

COPYRIGHT 1995 American College of Physician Executives
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group