Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
- Discuss with your staff regularly the importance of providing a harassment-free workplace. Creating a change in culture starts at the top. You are responsible for reminding your employees of their obligations to create a workplace free of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
- Ensure employees are aware of their options to report incidents of harassment and that EEO contact information is prominently displayed on every floor of every office and in conspicuous places.
- If you see employees or other managers acting inappropriately, address or report it immediately; don’t assume it is not your responsibility. Even if no allegation of harassment is reported directly to you, you should address any inappropriate conduct that you witness.
- If an employee reports harassment to you, seek guidance from your servicing HR Office or EEO Office. Failure to act swiftly in response to harassment allegations can lead employees to believe the Agency is unwilling to take allegations of harassment seriously and can also result in liability against the Agency. Do not require the person reporting harassment to meet with the alleged harasser to “talk things over.”
- Do not judge the veracity of the allegations before a neutral investigation has been conducted. As a manager, you should neither assume that the alleged harasser is guilty nor that the alleged victim is untruthful. Treat each allegation the same regardless of who is making the allegation and who has been named as the alleged harasser. Also, remember that even if you would not find the alleged conduct serious or harassing in nature, another person might. Before an investigation is completed, it is not your role to judge whether the conduct challenged legally rises to the level of sexual harassment.
Contact Us
Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights Programs
1849 C Street, NW MS-4660-MIB Road
Washington, DC 20240
Open 9:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m., Monday–Friday.
