When Socializing with Colleagues Becomes Part of the Job
The recent $4.5 million settlement involving WestJet and more than 3,400 current and former female flight attendants provides an opportunity for employers to look beyond policies and consider a more complex issue: workplace culture.
The class action involved allegations that WestJet failed to live up to its contractual promise to provide a harassment-free workplace. WestJet denies the allegations, which were not determined at trial, and the settlement does not constitute an admission of liability or wrongdoing.
While the circumstances provide important context, this article is not intended to draw conclusions about the allegations. Instead, they raise a broader question:
When does socializing with colleagues’ stop being purely social and become part of the workplace experience?
When Work and Social Life Overlap
In many workplaces, relationships are built outside regular working hours. Employees travel together, attend conferences, go for dinner or drinks, celebrate milestones and attend company events. Airline crews may spend layovers together away from home.
There is nothing inherently wrong with workplace socializing. The concern arises when it becomes so embedded in the culture that employees feel participation is important to belonging, building relationships, or accessing opportunities.
At that point, “it happened after work” may not tell the whole story.
A dinner after a conference may be social, but everyone may be there because of work. Drinks during a business trip may happen after hours, but the workplace relationships and dynamics remain.
The better question may be:
What connection did the behaviour have to the workplace, and what effect did it have when employees returned to work?
Alcohol, Boundaries and Judgment
Alcohol can lower inhibitions, affect judgment, and blur professional boundaries. But it does not erase workplace expectations.
This does not mean eliminating workplace socializing. It means being proactive about the risks that can arise when work and social settings overlap. Respectful workplace expectations do not disappear simply because the setting has changed.
Prevention can also be simple. Before a holiday party, conference, team event or other work-related gathering, a brief memo can remind employees that workplace policies and expectations for respectful conduct continue to apply. It can also reinforce professional boundaries, responsible alcohol consumption and where employees can turn if a concern arises.
A reminder before the event may help prevent a complaint after it.
Power Does Not Disappear After Hours
Power dynamics also matter.
Consider the relationship between a pilot and a flight attendant, a physician and a nurse, a senior executive and a junior employee, or a manager and an employee.
The person in the more senior or influential position may have greater organizational authority, influence over assignments or career opportunities, or hold a role that is more challenging for the organization to replace.
Those dynamics do not disappear at a restaurant, bar or social event.
An employee may laugh off an inappropriate comment rather than offend someone influential. They may hesitate to set a boundary or speak up because they are concerned about the effect on their working relationship or career. They may choose not to report the behaviour at all.
Look Beyond the Policy
Having a harassment policy is important. But employers also need to consider what is happening in practice.
The WestJet settlement’s requirement for a workplace assessment examining harassment reporting and barriers to reporting is particularly noteworthy because it moves the conversation beyond whether a policy exists and toward how the workplace functions in practice.
That raises a useful question for every organization:
What is happening in our workplace when no one from HR is in the room?
Can employees decline social activities without feeling excluded? Are professional boundaries clear? Do leaders recognize how their position may affect how others respond to them? Would an employee feel comfortable raising a concern involving someone senior or influential?
These are workplace culture questions.
Prevention Through Education
At HR Proactive Inc., we believe prevention starts with education.
Workplace concerns can involve professional boundaries, emotional intelligence, sexual harassment awareness, communication, power dynamics and understanding the impact our behaviour can have on others.
HR Proactive has developed learning solutions that allow organizations to address these issues through curated workplace training content. Organizations can license our content for delivery through our SCORM file format to their own Learning Management System (LMS), with other delivery and customization options available.
Prevention is not only about responding when something goes wrong. It is about helping employees and leaders recognize risks and make better decisions before problems arise.
Work may end for the day. Respect does not.
Turn awareness into action with Respect in Action: Where Culture Meets Compliance, our interactive eLearning program designed to help employees recognize the everyday behaviours and choices that shape a respectful workplace.
