Gay Jokes at Work

What do you do about people who tell gay jokes at work?  What if they offend you?  What if you tell gay jokes that are not taken well?  What do you do if you are not out at work and are offended by gay jokes?  Follow the steps below and hopefully you will end up with a positive outcome.

Often your company, especially if they are big, will have certain policies regarding professional conduct at work.  Perhaps your company has an ethics group or escalation procedures for internal problems.  Maybe there is a human resources committee that handles workplace policy violations.  I would certainly recommend that you do not report any misconduct anonymously.  You will probably get farther with a personal story that an anonymous one.

The complaint hierarchy:

1. Ask the person to stop telling the jokes, saying they are offensive to you and are not appropriate for the workplace.
2. If you are uncomfortable confronting the offensive person, try talking to your boss to see if she or he will do something about it.  You can ask that your boss keeps your name confidential.
3. If your are not comfortable with either of the first two steps or they did not work, confront that person’s boss.  Perhaps your manager just didn’t care because he or she was not their employee.
4. The next thing to try would be going to your local human resources representative and explaining the problem.  It would be best to do this in person, but is most careful to present in writing.  I would follow up a written complaint with an in-person visit.
5. Next, escalate the issue to a human resources manager and tell them that it is creating a “hostile work environment.”  Those three words will elicit action.  The company will not want a lawsuit on their hands.  You have every right to be prevented from abuse at work.
6. The final point of escalation would be to go to a company’s ethics board or your local business unit head or, if a small company, the president or CEO.

Photo by a flickr user, found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freya_gefn/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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