Bullying in the Workplace

Workplace bullying is occurring in the County workplace and there is no policy or employee training to preclude bullying. (FA-01 through FA-03, FA-09, FA-10)

Processes in place to report workplace behavior problems are not trusted by employees because the agency with the alleged bullying issue is allowed to investigate complaints using personnel within its own organization. This system risks the exposure of a complainant’s identity and reinforces employee perception that the investigation would not be conducted fairly. (FA-05, FA-06, FA-12)

The BOS does not receive detailed data that would identify bullying problems within County offices. (FA-13)

Forms used for employee disciplinary actions are not reviewed for content on a periodic basis by County Counsel. Since County Council has opined that the “Placement on Paid Administrative Leave Memorandum” form is improper, it is likely that other forms used for employee disciplinary actions may have legal issues. (FA-04, FA-11) 4 Bullying in the Workplace

A County policy against bullying, that includes descriptions of bullying behaviors, will educate employees on unacceptable workplace behaviors and encourage employees to report this type of workplace abuse. This will potentially reduce the numbers of employees leaving County service to escape bullying and save the County the costs of finding and training replacements. (FA-06 through FA-10) Recommendations

Employees left their County positions as a result of being bullied and declined to complain about their situations through the Employee Complaint Resolution Process or to the A-C Employee Fraud Hotline. These employees did not believe their complaints would be investigated fairly. They feared that the offending manager would become aware of their complaints and their identities, resulting in retaliatory behavior that would worsen their situations.

Bullying in the workplace impacts the physical and emotional health of employees who are the targets of a bully. Health problems, as a result of bullying, have led to legal claims.

The County incurs the cost for recruitment and training of replacement personnel when bullied employees leave their County positions. During the recruitment and training periods of replacement personnel, departments must distribute their workload among the remaining staff or delay tasks.

The County has no written policy specifically directed against bullying in the workplace. The County does have a written policy for workplace discrimination and harassment to comply with Title VII, United States Code (Civil Rights Act of 1964). One instance of that Bullying in the Workplace 3 policy is documented in Attachment 3 in a paragraph entitled “What is discrimination or harassment?” (Att-03)

The County has a written policy that defines causes for disciplinary actions. Some of the causes describe actions that might serve as a policy against bullying such as “intemperance,” “discourteous treatment of other employees,” and “failure of good behavior.” These descriptions do not clearly identify bullying behavior. Attachment 4, Causes for Disciplinary Action, contains the full list of actions. (Att-04)

Forms used in employee disciplinary actions are not formally reviewed by County Counsel for compliance to current law and for sound legal practice on a periodic basis.

Workplace behavior complaints filed through the CEO-HR or the A-C Employee Fraud Hotline were normally assigned to the agency against which the complaint was lodged to investigate the allegations internally.

Neither the CEO-HR, nor the A-C Employee Fraud Hotline provided detailed data on workplace behavioral complaints to the BOS. In some cases, data identifying workplace behavior complaints by category and department, along with trend statistics, were available, but were considered to be sensitive information. Since reports to the BOS are published on a County website for public information, the detailed data are not included in the reports.

The Grand Jury found samples of policies written specifically to address bullying behavior through Internet searches. (Att-05) Findings