In this episode, Michelle covers the recent updates by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) concerning harassment and discrimination in the workplace. After noting an increase in allegations over the past five years, the EEOC has consolidated its guidelines to clearly define what constitutes harassment based on various facets, such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. The episode provides a detailed breakdown of each category, explaining what behaviors and characteristics could potentially lead to harassment or discrimination claims. Michelle emphasizes the importance of these guidelines being an integral part of HR compliance policies and recommends regular reviews to ensure a safe and inclusive work environment.

The episode also covers the complexity and nuance of the guidelines, praising the EEOC for including over 70 examples to help organizations better understand and apply them. Michelle encourages listeners to stay informed about the latest updates and incorporate them into training and policy revisions to foster an equitable workplace. She also directs listeners to the EEOC website for further information and resources.

If you're interested in the resources that Michelle discussed, visit: https://www.equity-at-work.com/

Key Topics Discussed:

• Overview of the EEOC and its role
• Recent updates to EEOC harassment and discrimination guidelines
• Detailed explanation of harassment categories – race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, and genetic information
• Importance of integrating these guidelines into HR compliance policies
• The value of regular review and education on DEI issues
• Availability of resources and examples to clarify guidelines

I'm Michelle Bogan, founder and CEO of Equity at Work, and this is your DEI Minute, your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization, all in fifteen minutes or less. In this episode, I wanna go through, some of the guidelines that were updated recently by the EEOC. And the EEOC stands for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and it's the arm of the government that ensures that any harassment or discrimination that has been reported in the workplace is being dealt with appropriately. It also ensures things like equal pay for equal work and looks after just sort of the overall health of workplace organizations. In April of twenty twenty four, the EEOC issued updated guidelines to address what constitutes harassment in the workplace based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. And while none of the laws are new, they've had a huge spike in the charges of discrimination in the last five years. I think in terms of which which of those charges include allegations of harassment.

And so they have issued consolidated guidelines and they've actually also provided over 70 examples. So if you do wanna go look at this in more detail, I recommend you go to eeoc.gov and and look at harassment and discrimination guidelines, and you'll find plenty of information and resources, that you can follow there. All of these should be part of kind of your standard HR compliance policies. And and if they're not, then if you're involved in DEI at your organization, this is a great thing to raise to them and make sure that they are included. They also really do require some supporting education and coaching on the do's and don'ts as part of your DI work or as part of your HR training. A lot of times that's included in onboarding and then maybe again as manager training or leader training. But these really need to be reviewed on a pretty regular basis so that everybody feels protected at work, fully safe, that they can be themselves, and and not have any discrimination or harassment or retribution based on one part of their identity. So here, I'm gonna read to you several of the key takeaways.

I wanna make sure I get the language exactly right. So I'm gonna read these to you. So the first one is race. So use use of racial epithets, offensive comments and stereotypes, as well as harassment based on traits or characteristics linked to an individual's race including their name, cultural dress, accent, manner of speech, and physical and appearance standards such as hairstyles and textures. So any discrimination or harassment based on any of those things are part of racial discrimination. Color includes harassment based on an individual's pigmentation, complexion, skin shade, or tone. And you'll notice that is separate from race. National origin is use of ethnic epithets, derogatory comments about a person's nationality, stereotypes, traits, physical and linguistic characteristics including diet, attire, and accent.

The next one is religion. So this is use of religious epithets, offensive comments about an individual's religion or lack of religious belief, religious practices or dress or religious accommodation, and explicitly or implicitly coercing employees to engage in religious practices at work. That's religion. The next one is sex and this is a long one. This includes pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity. So within this, it includes unwanted conduct expressing sexual attraction or involving sexual activity, sexual attention or coercion, sexual violence, discussing or displaying visual depictions of sex acts or sexual remarks, lactation, using or not using contraception, deciding to have or not have an abortion, how sexual orientation or gender identity is expressed including epithets, outing an individual, intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual's known gender identity, or denial of access to a bathroom or other sex segregated facility consistent with the individual's gender identity. Next one is age and this is harassment of employees over 40 years of age including those based on negative perceptions or stereotypes about older workers. For disability, this includes physical and mental disability stereotypes, traits, and characteristics, harassment based on a request for and or receipt of accommodations, harassment because of an impairment even if it is not a disability, harassment based on the disability of someone with whom the an individual is associated.

So that could be a friend, a spouse, a coworker, colleague, anyone else they're associated with. And then the last one is genetic information. This is harassment based on an individual's or family member's genetic test or medical history. So again, for more guidelines and more details from the EOC on workplace harassment or other rights as an employee within the workforce, please go to eeoc.gov. But as you can see, these guidelines are quite robust. There are a lot of things included in each of these that many of our clients have been very surprised about. So it's very important that you are up to date on the latest requirements. I also think it's wonderful that the EOC has provided so many examples because a lot of the details they've mentioned can feel nuanced in some situations.

So they're really trying hard to provide very specific guidelines on how to handle those situations and what is and is not considered harassment or discrimination. So I hope that having this information will help you get clarity on the do's and don'ts to take into your organization and any updates that you may need to provide to your policies and supporting training.

And that's a wrap. I'm Michelle Bogan, and that's your DEI minute for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow us wherever you

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the episode notes. This episode was produced and edited by Podgrove with podcast art by

our very own Jamie Applegate.