Employees are the least tolerant of unethical company behavior that directly impacts themselves or their immediate community, such as failing to act against sexual harassment or underpaying minority employees. Employees are more tolerant of broader political and economic company misbehavior, such as using legal loopholes to minimize tax liabilities
Most employees will not accept a job with higher pay from an employer that fails to act against sexual harassment, according to a recent survey of 540 full-time employees from The Manifest, a business news and how-to website.
Nearly 80% of employees will not tolerate a lack of action against sexual harassment. Employees will also not tolerate employers that sell user data without users’ knowledge (79%) or create environmental problems (72%).
Sexual harassment inflicts damage on a company’s workers, culture, and it’s bottom line. Toxic work cultures persist, however. According to a 2018 survey from the nonprofit Stop Street Harassment, 38% of women report experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace.
Ultimately, companies that fail to address sexual harassment will suffer increased turnover, diminished profits, and damage to their reputation.
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Employees Motivated to Report Sexual Harassment
The Manifest’s survey found that just over 40% of employees (43%) claim they are likely to protest privately to a manager or supervisor if they learn that their company failed to act against sexual harassment.
After that, employees claim they’re most likely to quit (20%), leak the information to the news media (15%), or do nothing (7%).
Employees who report sexual harassment at work are sometimes at risk for social isolation, retaliation, anxiety, and depression.
Despite these hardships, most employees feel a need to act against unethical behavior that directly impacts coworkers or them.
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Employees Most Tolerant of Employers with Differing Politics
More than half of employees (54%) are likely to accept a job with a higher salary from a company that makes political donations to candidates they dislike.
Secondarily, employees will tolerate if their company tries to stop labor unions from organizing (39%), uses legal loopholes to minimize tax liabilities (38%), collects sensitive data about customers (35%), and lobbies against consumer protection regulations (31%).
Overall, employees are more likely to tolerate disagreeable company behaviors that are driven by politics or economics, instead of ones that directly impact coworkers or them.
The Manifest surveyed 540 full-time employees ages 18 or older at companies ranging from small businesses to large enterprises.
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