Bullying awareness has blown up across the country with anti-bullying messages flooding mainstream media and a barrage of children, youth, and adults rallying to spread the message that bullying won’t be tolerated.
Bullying and harassment are interchangeable words – both involve behaviours which harm, intimidate, threaten, or victimize others. Bullying, or harassment, doesn’t just happen in our younger years on the playground but can move into adulthood, into the workplace.
With more than 700 employees, it’s inevitable that some staff won’t exactly see eye-to-eye and tensions will flare in the high-stress situations we work in, but it’s no reason to accept unfair treatment.
Ranch Ehrlo Society has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying or harassment.
Our agency recently launched a mandatory Respectful Workplace Training course for all of its employees to set standards and expectations. While some may think they don’t need to learn how to behave appropriately as an adult, the facts are that a lot of people do.
In 2007, the province Saskatchewan acknowledged the epidemic and went as far to amend its Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations to include provisions for workplace harassment. The amendment expanded the definition of harassment to include personal behaviour such as abuse of power and bullying.
Saskatchewan Employment Act also covers two types of harassment:
- Harassment on prohibited grounds that is based on race, creed, religion, colour, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability, physical size or weight, age, nationality, ancestry or place of origin; or
- Personal harassment that adversely affects the worker’s psychological or physical well-being where the harasser knows, or ought reasonably to know the harassment would cause a worker to be humiliated or intimidated.
Ranch Ehrlo advocates for a safe workplace for its employees, and this newly introduced Respectful Workplace Training is a proactive way to get everyone on the same page.
When you come to work you should feel safe, respected, and appreciated. Ranch Ehrlo is doing its part to make our workplace a better one for everyone.
