½ Day - Better Banter: Humour or Harassment?
This half-day course explores what constitutes banter and what is acceptable in the modern workplace. Delivered by an employment lawyer with an understanding of the Builders Merchant Sector, this course examines what is acceptable and what oversteps the mark into harassment or bullying behaviour.
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Understanding ‘banter’
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- What is banter?
- When does banter outside of work constitutes workplace banter: social media, work parties, relationships outside of work?
- Different types: horseplay, cyber bullying, verbal, pranks and violence
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Why is it important?
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- One person's harmless fun vs another's bullying or harassment
- Damaging to the reputation of the business
- Loss of management time
- Increased poor performance
- Increased sickness absence
- Expensive exits
- Dilution of the company’s values
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Crossing the line
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- What do the company policies state?
- What does the law say?
- Humour vs harassment
- Identifying protected characteristics
- The legal context: discrimination claims
- Victimisation
- Employment tribunal claims
- Personal injury claims
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Who is to blame
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- The cost if it goes wrong
- Employer’s vicarious liability
- Personal liability against employees engaged in the offensive conduct/ comments
- Compensation and declarations
- Hitting the headlines: focusing on recent cases
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Dealing with unacceptable behaviour
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- Knowing your options
- Misconduct vs performance
- Cost of getting the process wrong
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Strategies for better banter
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- How to protect the company
- Creating a 5* culture
- Setting the tone and parameters whilst at work
- Focusing on key policies:
- Equal opportunities
- Anti-bullying and harassment
- Behaviour outside of work
- Social media
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The price of this course is £175 + VAT (the price below is inclusive of VAT)