When things turn toxic at your office

Mike Causey

When things turn toxic at your office

If the office creep is the boss, what can you do? While there isn't a vaccine to cure the problem, Mike Causey says there are ways to make things better.

Mike Causey@mcauseyWFED

August 10, 2017 1:00 am

3 min read

Senior Correspondent Mike Causey is traveling, so today we’re reposting a column from June.

What happens if there is someone in your office, maybe a coworker, maybe a supervisor, who tells offensive or off-color jokes? What if your immediate boss is a hugger or toucher where you are concerned? Maybe he/she has asked you out— for dinner or the weekend — because the old-ball-and-chain is away? What do you do? What can you do, without maybe endangering your career? Losing your livelihood? Who do you tell? It can be among the worst situations an individual faces, regardless of where they work or their position in the organization.

What, to make matters worse, if the Chief Creep is your big boss? El Supremo. The person who can make or break your career. If you doubt it could happen, find somebody who’s been in government a long, long time at a big outfit like, say, the Internal Revenue Service. Or several other operations where the problem started at the top.

Despite the millions of hours (and dollars) spent trying to make federal and private-sector offices nontoxic, nothing seems to change. Every couple of years, if not more frequently, there is a major scandal about sexual harassment in some federal department, agency, bureau or office. Sometimes even in million-dollar cable news operations. Heads may roll. Fines may be levied. Congress may inquire, but the beat goes on. It happens again and again. It’s bipartisan, wrong, counterproductive and stupid. But it’s déjà vu all over again.

The latest government operation to be hit with a sexual harassment scandal is the National Park Service, which strikes many Americans as a great place, with lots of cool, dedicated people. And it is. But it also has issues. NPS is a part of the Department of the Interior. NPS employees are among the federal employees most visible to the American public. It has some 20,000 people scattered in offices and worksites anywhere from a couple of blocks from the White House, to deep down in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, and in parks, mountains, craters and thermal operations like Old Faithful all over the world. When he took over as Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke promised to make harassment and other workplace issues a top priority. He named Tammy Duchesne (on temporary assignment from her post in Hawaii) to head the effort.

For details of the NPS situation click here.

The problem, as many point out, is that this isn’t going to stop or go away. It’s been with us, probably, since the first office in the first cave factory. So what do you do, if anything?

So we went to Stephen Paskoff. He’s president and CEO of ELI, an Atlanta-based firm that specializes in fumigating toxic workplaces. Paskoff was a long-time attorney and investigator before getting into the private sector. Some of his clients are federal agencies. When asked if there is a ‘vaccine’ that will make the problem go away, Paskoff said no. But he said federal agencies “can build what we call, and the EEOC has referenced in terms of our work, a ‘civil treatment workplace.'” Easier said than done, but doable, he says.

Paskoff is our guest today our Your Turn show. That’s 10 a.m., streaming right here from federalnewsradio.com or on 1500 AM in the D.C. area. Paskoff said he’ll talk about “practical actions that don’t require much expense or time but reflect a serious sustainable commitment tied to mission and mission effectiveness.” He said for things to work smoothly throughout the organization, any organization, people have to know what is right and wrong and what won’t be tolerated. And it starts at the top. And with you too, regardless of where you are on the ladder.