#88 How to Handle Sexual Harassment in a Dental Office

Sexual harassment can be a sensitive subject. This podcast will help listeners understand what sexual harassment is and how to appropriately deal with this conduct.

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) - https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment
• National Archives Factsheet on Sexual Harassment  https://www.archives.gov/files/eeo/policy/facts-sexual-harassment.pdf
• Free California Sexual Harassment Prevention Training - https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/shpt/
• Dental Board of California Changes to Continuing Education Courses for License Renewal 1-1-2023 - https://dbc.ca.gov/formspubs/alert_imp_ce_changes.pdf 

                                                 https://www.thecompliancedivas.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_03 0:04

Welcome. I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan and together we are the Compliance Divas. Welcome to the Compliance Divas podcast. My name is Olivia Juan and I'll be your moderator today. In today's episode, we're discussing how to handle sexual harassment in a dental practice. This could be a sensitive topic, but it's certainly timely. We want to avoid any disruptions in our dental practices as well as litigation. As the compliance divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or visit our website at the compliancedevas.com. Any resources that we mentioned during the podcast can be found on the compliance divas website. You may also submit your support questions to support at the compliancedeevas.com. Sexual harassment. As I mentioned, this is a very serious topic to discuss, and sexual harassment can actually occur in any industry. It doesn't matter where you work, there is the risk of sexual harassment. And here lately, I've dealt with several cases in dental practices as a lawyer that had to do with sexual harassment. And I we thought it would be a great topic to share with our audiences. We know that sexual harassment can come from a fellow team member or even a team member's family member that's visiting the office, or even from a patient. So at this time, I'd love for Mary to share her insight with us in defining what exactly is sexual harassment and what are the steps for a worker to take if they feel like they have been harassed. Mary, can you talk to us about this?

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Absolutely, Olivia. And as you said, this is a very serious topic because if you are the recipient of some type of sexual harassment, it makes for a very uncomfortable situation. And many times people are afraid to report it for fear of retaliation. They might be fired, or something bad may happen as a result of it. But every worker has the right to be protected from sexual harassment. So sexual harassment can include all kinds of um sexual discrimination. In other words, it can be physical, it can be touching, it can be visual or verbal harassment, um, body language kind of thing, making inappropriate gestures and so forth. Um, it could be something as blatant as a request for sexual favors. If you do this for me, I will do something for you, um, or your job depends on it, otherwise known as quid pro quo. And it's any type of unwanted advances in the workplace. And it's important to note that in our current climate, it doesn't have to be a male harasser um on a female or making advances to a female employee. It may be same-sex um advances as well. So all of those things need to be um um taken into account. So, as I said before, it could be a quid pro quo. You must do this in order to keep your job, um, in order to be promoted, um, any of those types of situations, or it could be some way that an employer or another employee has created a hostile work environment where you feel that there are constant comments or gestures or things being made that are intimidating. And it also can be from a patient, which we'll talk about a little bit later. So, what do you do if you feel like you are being harassed? Well, the first thing to do is to know what type of policy that your employment setting has, and hopefully you do have a policy against this type of behavior. So, if you have an employment manual for your practice, you should do some reading, you should find out what that means. Make sure that you record any events that happened, make a detailed report. It can be handwritten, make sure that you document everything, what was said, what were reactions, what possibly even who might have been in the room at the time might have witnessed what happened. Keep that information. And you need to inform your harasser. You can certainly at the time just say to them, this is not appropriate, I don't appreciate this, I don't like this. If it's continuing, you may want to document in writing or perhaps in an email to that harasser that um this is not appropriate, these are things that have happened, and um let them know. Um, the difficult thing is that if that is your employer, letting them know that what they've done is um inappropriate and follow whatever your policy in your practice says is the reporting procedure. So is there a practice administrator that you report it to? It's obviously difficult if the employer is the person who you report it to and the employer is doing the harassing, so you may have to go through um someone um who is not your employer, perhaps working with your um practice administrator. And if you don't get some resolution, if you can't get it worked out, you can't get it talked out um in the practice, then you also always can go to the last resort is the reporting it to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission or the EEOC. And I would certainly encourage people to do that if it's appropriate, but try to get it resolved um internally if you can. But if you are working for an employer who is consistently um harassing people, uh I would be questioning whether that's an employment setting that I want want to continue to work in.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

That's true, Mary. So I think it's important to really zero in on some of the things that you mentioned that sexual harassment is defined as unwelcomed sexual conduct. So that's critical. And in in working with my clients, that's a good place for us to start. And what I have found interesting over the years, Mary, is the perception of sexual harassment. Uh, years ago, I had a matter where the uh there was construction going on on a site when the young dental workers were coming in and the men were saying things and whistling and whatnot, they were sexually harassed. When the older workers were coming in, they were like, Oh, I still got it. They enjoyed the attention. So the the dentist was in a how would you say, turmoil? Like, is this sexual harassment or is it not? And it all boils down to is it unwelcome sexual conduct? And the employer is charged in making sure that the workplace is free from harassment. And sexual harassment is actually in direct violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So I like how you mentioned those important steps to take in dealing with it. It has to be dealt with immediately. It cannot go on for days and months and years, and then it ends up for a judge to determine whether the person had a claim or not. So I think it's really important what you said, making sure we have our handbook uh to indicate how to report it. Anytime I've dealt with the EEOC, they stress that they want the reporting spelled out in the handbook. So it shouldn't be just the office telephone number. It should be the dentist owner or management, if it's a corporate setting, of how to reach that person directly. And those are all key considerations in dealing with serious, potentially very serious allegations. But now I'd like to turn our attention to uh, you know, what if you believe you've been harassed? What does the employee do? Uh, because we know that could be sensitive. You person might be thinking, well, is it harassment or is it not? Am I being too sensitive? Linda, how would you suggest that employees deal with this in the workplace?

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Olivia, as you and Mary have just become saying, you do need to speak up. If it's something that's made you uncomfortable, you need to you do need to speak up. Doesn't matter whether it's the first time or not, because we know the law doesn't prevent, you know, one teasing comment or one offhanded comment, but that could be the beginning of a pattern. And all it takes is just one person to feel uncomfortable. It may have been directed at you or may have been part of a conversation you were having with someone one-on-one. But if another team member's in the break room, for example, and they're uncomfortable, then it's then they could consider it harassment. And they should speak up. So if you're the witness or you're the actual person involved in this comment or the situation, then you definitely need to speak up. And this is not to be in a confrontational manner, but it's more just to be in a first just matter of fact, hey, that makes me uncomfortable. I would prefer that we not talk about that at break time or let lunch or work or whatnot. Um, and then just kind of let your boundaries be known in a nice way. As you mentioned, the challenge comes up, Olivia, if it's your employer or someone who's in a supervisory role within your office or organization. Who do you report to then? And I think it's more of a challenge when it is a small practice and it is a domineering team member, whether it's another clinical person in the back or a business office person or an office manager or the doctor. How do you manage that? And I would go further with Mary's suggestion, too, of making sure you have everything in writing. Have that conversation with the harasser when it happens. And hey, I'm not comfortable. You know, can you please let's not talk about that here? You know, I appreciate your respect on this, just something general and this and try to set your boundaries. And then when you're speaking to your supervisor or your or your manager or the doctor, I would have somebody with you if you need to. Because if you're not comfortable being with that person because they're the harasser, then have a witness with you. If it's the doctor, have the office manager or a colleague in the back who witnesses it and feels comfortable to support you. Um, this is one thing that's really important is that if you've witnessed it or you have knowledge of it, it's very important that that individual support the harasser as well and not to sit back as an innocent bystander and let things unfold because they're too afraid to speak up or too afraid. So, in writing, then the next step is Mary mentioned, after you have that meeting with the person or your boss or your supervisor, then send them an email. This is to confirm what we just spoke about and save any emails that come back to you. And I would take that one step further, Olivia, to say that if you should leave employment for some reason, then I would have printed copies of those emails that you've sent back and forth as well, because that date stamps everything when you've printed that out and you have information should you need it going forward. But let's be optimistic and hope that you can get this resolved without having to take any legal matters or speak to EEOC, as Mary mentioned. So be sure that you talk about as the main thing. And then also I would say if you're in a situation where you have a large group practice or even a small practice, perhaps Olivia should have office protocols and HR manual. But definitely the larger the group practices and the DSOs all have complaint reports. And they should fill out the complaint form and make sure it gets submitted to the right person. In a larger group setting, that would be the HR director or manager or maybe an operations manager. In a private practice, it might be the employer or the office manager, depending on how the roles are assigned in the practice. But the important thing is don't wait, don't wait, because one offhanded comment or one teasing episode could be the beginning of a pattern, and it could be somebody who's either intentionally or unintentionally testing the water.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Good points, Linda. And I would anticipate, I mean, I don't know this, just forecasting that we will probably see an increase of sexual harassment claims with the greater number of people who are sharing publicly how they wish to identify their gender. And so, in the workplace, this could be an extremely sensitive topic that could potentially divide the workplace. And employers and supervisors need to be on their toes to make sure that harassment in any form is not taking place in the workplace. And it gets really tricky, like you mentioned, you know, what if the harasser is management person or is the dentist that owns the practice? And for those individuals, I just want to be remind them that you know there's extreme liability when you are harassing someone subordinate to you. And it gets tricky when the individual is responding like to that other person harassing. Oh, they think it's cute and they might be inviting that conduct, and then all of a sudden it changes and it becomes unwelcome conduct. So it can be a snare that employers or management persons could fall into that has adverse effects on that dental practice. So, Linda, thank you for pointing out how to file a complaint and keeping up with narratives, and that the employee simply needs to tell the harasser to stop so they know that it's unwelcome conduct. Because if they just giggle and laugh it off, that's not how you see handle that situation. And that will be brought up if these allegations turn into a complaint. But I'd like to talk to Leslie just a minute. We understand that California has much more rigid requirements than some of our other states, and Leslie is our uh Californian diva that can share with us what's going on in California. So can you speak to us about how California is handling this topic?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Olivia, this is perfect timing for this podcast because exactly two years ago, the law went into effect that California businesses with five or more employees must provide all non-supervisory employees with one hour of sexual harassment training and prevention every two years, and all supervisors must have two hours. So this is now uh the two-year anniversary of this law going into effect. Many dental practices have complied with this, but now it's time to re-up that training. And uh the good news is today in California, you can get that training for free from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. And it has both the one-hour and the two-hour courses, and it provides a certificate of completion that employers can use to demonstrate that they have conducted this training. It's online and it's uh something that can be as a self-paced program. So each employee, of course, on the clock during work hours, would be able to view this on either their own device or on an office computer and go through the training, complete it, have the certificate. And what's actually really great news on the two-year anniversary of this regulation is that uh on January 1st of this year, 2023, the Dental Board of California now recognizes sexual harassment and prevention training as eligible for CE credit towards one's license renewal requirements. Now, I'm still exploring with the dental board, and they've been a little slow to answer since they uh made this announcement uh whether this is going to apply toward what we call criteria one or criteria two, which means is this gonna be in the clinical subject matter or is it going to be in the non-clinical, like office operations that benefit patient care? And I don't have the answer to that just yet. I'm gonna let my uh my listeners know and my clients and audiences know as soon as I find out. But my uh I believe that it will be considered because it's mandatory in criteria one, which goes with clinical. OSHA resides there, Dental Practice Act resides there, HIPAA is in the clinical subject matter, and and I believe sexual harassment and prevention training will be in that topic as well. And as well, as far as uh who provides the training, I'm also looking into whether this free course will qualify as uh CE credit because uh the state of California is not a CE provider recognized by the California Dental Board, but uh there are many different providers of CPR that are also not California providers and they recognize certain associations. So I am stay tuned for announcements about whether California Dental Board will accept the free course that you can get through the state as eligible for CE credit hour per hour and what category of continuing education it will be in. But that's pretty exciting news. And I just want to add one more comment. Uh, the state law is that uh if the employer has five or more employees, uh, and my position is that even employers with four or less employees, this is sexual harassment can it can occur in any setting. You don't have to have you know five or six or seven or a hundred employees. Uh, and sometimes in a smaller setting, people, employees may feel that they are being harassed, and the employer has no idea that that the employee is taking it that way. So this training is very good for everyone to take. And again, the benefit of having the training is now you can apply that toward your hours for continuing education, toward a hygienist license renewal to an RDA, to a permit holder, and to a dentist license renewal.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Thank you, Leslie, for sharing that information about California's requirements. We appreciate that. And we will have that link to share with our listeners. Mary, what if the harasser is not a fellow team member? Because, like oftentimes we think of two employees or a dentist and an employee, but what if that harasser is of uh someone like the patient or a guest or a visitor or even like a sales rep? What would you do in those situations?

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Great question, Olivia. And it's going to be a very similar situation. Um, I actually had a patient um when I was doing clinical hygiene who on the way out of the treatment room decided that he would grab my butt and have a little squeeze. And so I originally um or I immediately turned to the patient. I was foul, I was preceding him out of the treatment room door, and I immediately turned around so that it the conversation stayed a little more private, and I told him I did not appreciate it. We talk about that unwelcome activity. I did not appreciate that, and that I would expect that he would not do that again. And so it's immediately confronting it. Same thing we've talked about if it's an employer or a coworker. You tell your person directly or tell the person who's doing this to you directly that it's not appropriate, it's unwelcome, and they need to stop. Um, document what happened. Um, I ended up writing a note to put into the patient chart, um, and then follow your policy in your practice. So if that is to report to a supervisor, practice administrator, um, your HR department if you're in a large setting, or your employer, let that employer know um what happened. Now, in many cases, as you um sort of alluded to or you stated earlier, Olivia, that sometimes people think it's cute and oh, they like me, and and you know, we kind of giggle and say, oh, that's pretty funny. It's not funny. If it's unwelcome, it is not funny at all. It doesn't mean you need to go ballistic um in front of everybody in the practice. And we certainly don't want to um alienate a patient or a vendor or someone, but we need to set our boundaries and let this person know that that is not um appropriate behavior. In my case, I did mention it to my employer. Let the employer know what had happened. And I talked to the patient, and my employer did not take it seriously, just simply said, Oh, you know, it's just him. He didn't mean anything by it. And I did not continue to work in that particular practice for a very long time because I could see, as Linda mentioned earlier, a pattern of things happening in the practice. So you approach this very similar to you would if it were somebody that's within your work setting. If it's a sales rep or a vendor and it continues, it might be something that needs to be discussed with that person's supervisor, or maybe it's your doctor or practice administrator that deals with that person's supervisor to let them know that this is inappropriate behavior. But number one thing, as we've been saying all along, is you need to confront it. You need to let that person know that that is not appropriate, it is unwelcome, and then you go from there.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Good points, Mary. And it can be a little bit sensitive in dealing with a patient, as you mentioned. And I several times I've worked with dentists who actually terminated a patient from the practice due to their ongoing behavior with the employees in the dental office. So once again, the dentist or management, they are responsible for providing a workplace that is free from harassment. So if this patient continues to come in and harass the workers, then that would be a serious consideration for the dentist to make whether that patient needs to be part of that practice anymore, and make sure that they follow the proper procedures when terminating a patient and providing 30 days of emergency care and being willing to furnish a copy of the record to the next provider and even help identify another provider. So these are important things to consider. And I would love for Linda to give us some more feedback.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Olivia, I'd like to think about our patients who are sedated, and I would offer our listeners that you should expect something, some unusual behavior from a sedated patient. So that way you're prepared. So when the unexpected occurs, it's like medical emergency, fire protection, CPR, you're prepared for an emergency. One story, this was not a harassing story, but it was a story that happened to one of my oral surgery clients a few years ago as a male patient was coming out of the anesthesia from having oral surgery, he pulled a knife on them. So he had a knife on his person, they didn't know it, and they quickly had to subdue them, this person. So unexpected things happen since then. They kind of not quite frisk everybody, but they make sure that they don't go to the back with any phones, any weapons, anything on their person. So likewise, and similar to my experience with my oral ambulatory surgery clients, when patients are coming out of anesthesia, they tend to make little comments. So I think we should be prepared for that and expect that to happen. So that way, when it does happen, you know how you're going to manage it. So in a dental practice, typically you're going to bring back the driver or the next of kin, whoever accompanied that patient on the visit because they're going to drive them home, obviously. And they can be with the patient too and be a witness and help to keep things moderated, if you will, because oftentimes when one patient's being recovered, the doctor is busy getting ready to see another patient. Maybe they haven't sedated that patient yet, but they may not be within earshot. And you want to be sure they have that scenario covered as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Good points. And probably all of the divas could relate stories and experiences of having been harassed in working in a dental office or any workplace setting, as well as the experiences we have in dealing with our clients who have dealt with sexual harassment. So this is great information to review with our team members and to be sure we have our reporting procedures listed in the handbook and we're providing the training. We will have Leslie's resource posted for everyone for the California practices, as well as others who would like to take advantage of that free training video that is available. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please submit your questions to support at thecompliancedeevas.com, and we will publish the resources that we discussed in this episode. Thanks again for tuning in.