Compliment Employees’ Performance (Not Their Appearance) to Avoid Harassment Impact in Business and at Work

Reading and hearing about the continuing flood of stories of workplace harassment in all sectors and all kinds of workplaces is at the same time difficult and important to hear. Difficult for the resultant heartbreak and economic impact to those individuals and organizations harmed by workplace harassment. Important to hear, because the truth will continue to drive the movement to make workplaces safer and more inclusive for all.

In that vein, I read yet another all-too-familiar story over the weekend of a powerful individual (in this latest story, a pastor and the leader of his church) allegedly abusing his authority by sexually harassing his subordinates; and one subordinate woman in particular, who the lead pastor allegedly drove out of the workplace and the church, damaging the women’s ability to make a living.

With both my HR Practitioner and Third-Party Investigator hats on, one aspect of the story particularly intrigued me: how the alleged harasser conveniently documented one concrete aspect of his inappropriate behavior that always impacts as harassing in a note praising the woman harmed by his harassment on her performance, with this telling post-script:

P.S. Plus, you are a knockout!

Unless the employee is a fashion model or an actor, praising or criticizing an employee’s looks / appearance is not only irrelevant and out of place in a supervisor / subordinate relationship, it always impacts as written harassment / other types of harassment. (And for those respective vocations mentioned above, the performance feedback regarding appearance should focus on objective data, not subjective and highly personal hyperbole).

On the Spectrum of Workplace Harassment Behaviors, P.S. Plus, you are a knockout in that note constitutes written harassment:

How do you ensure that you compliment your employees on their work performance (and not their appearance, impacting as harassment) in business and at work?