No End to Workplace Ridicule

No End to Workplace Ridicule

Lest you thought all those lengthy sexual harassment policies and ethics training programs were finally paying off, Boston-based employee performance consultancy Novations Group has news for you. Racial, ethnic slurs and other inappropriate comments made in the workplace, failed to decline last year, according to an annual national telephone survey of 612 employed Americans conducted last month for Novations (www.novations.com) by Media, Pa.-based International Communications Research.

Following a pattern established over the last four years, the most frequent offensive remarks were sexually related, with the incidence of improper sexual remarks rising by 4 percentage points, from 31 percent in 2004 to 35 percent last year. Ridicule based on sexual orientation also shot up 4 points, from 20 percent in 2004 to 24 percent last year, Novations Group consultant Tom McKinnon reported in a press release.

Incidence of ethnic and racial slurs also hasn’t improved, remaining consistent over the past four years: Ethnic remarks were overheard by 29 percent of employees in 2005, 28 percent in 2004, 28 percent in 2003 and 29 percent in 2002, while racial slurs were overheard by 29 percent in 2005, 30 percent in 2004, 27 percent in 2003 and 29 percent in 2002. African-Americans were half as likely as whites to overhear racial comments, by 17 percent to 30 percent, and Westerners were more likely, by 36 percent to 24 percent, to overhear such remarks than Northeasterners.

In addition, ethnic slurs were more likely to be overheard by Southerners than by Northeasterners, by 32 percent to 27 percent. And, if sex, ethnicity or race didn’t get your employees, then there’s a fair chance they were ridiculed about their age. Age-related ridicule was noted by 22 percent of employees.

Source: Training Magazine