Tonight Kristina and I connected to do our role play. She played the part of the employee and I played the part of the Human Resources Manager. We decided on the situation of a sexual harassment incident where she overhears a conversation between two other employees that is very sexually explicit. She comes to me to file a complaint and I need to find a solution for the situation.
She told me her complaint and I first asked her how she would like to see the solution remedied. She told me she just knew that she needed to file the complaint which was the protocol laid out in the employee handbook. I begin to tell her that I would pull the two employees aside and talk to them about inappropriate conversations in the work place and the problems with sexual harassment. I then said that I would schedule a staff wide meeting to discuss the sexual harassment procedures with the whole staff. She was concerned about her name being mentioned or the two employees not confessing to the conversation. I told her that her name would not be mentioned and that any information she told me would be held confidential. I also said that the two employees would not be reprimanded for their conversation, simply reminded of what is not appropriate conversation in the work place and that the staff wide meeting would remind all the employees of the sexual harassment procedures and the course of action that would be taken if the inappropriate behavior did not stop. She said that she was okay with this solution.
I was very amazed at Kristina's ability to role play seriously and stay in "character." I felt a bit silly and had a slightly hard time as the HR person because I was not sure what proper sexual harassment complaint procedure really was. Kristina reminded me that I did not need to know the exact "procedure," but that I just needed a reasonable solution. Overall I felt that the conversation went really well. Kristina was right to the point, very clear, and had a good understanding of what she wanted to say and do. For being a role play with a complete stranger, I felt that it went really smoothly and easily.
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2 comments:
Despite not knowing protocol, I thought you handled the situation as the manager fantastically. You offered very reasonable interventions to resolve the issues.
Good post!
Hi Shannon, I talked to Amie for the telephone role play and we both felt kind of silly as well. I was wondering if you would like to be phone partners for this next week. I have already talked to Lucy and Amie in our group. Talk to you later.
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