MONTEGO BAY, St James – For cutting-edge human resource (HR) managers, the names Helen Green and William Majrowski are stern reminders that a failure to stop employees who make life on the job too difficult for their colleagues could cost their employers millions of dollars.

Green, a former employee of the Deutsche Bank in London, made history in that city on May 15 this year when a high court judge ordered the commercial bank to pay her £828,000 as compensation for two nervous breakdowns she suffered as a consequence of being bullied by her co-workers.

There was nothing physical about it – no blows were exchanged – but the effect of having to work with male and female colleagues who undermined, teased and snubbed her on a daily basis was just as severe.

According to the judgment, which is available online, Green’s co-workers made life at work unbearable with their constant smirking, staring and generally rude behaviour, which included talking loudly above her head as if she was invisible, refusing to acknowledge her greetings and refusing to pass on her telephone messages.

In coming to the decision, the judge blasted the bank’s HR department for failing to address Green’s problems.

The House of Lords, Britain’s most authoritative court, gave Majrowski, a clinical auditor, the go-ahead to sue his former employers at Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust for compensation for distress, anxiety and consequential injuries he suffered at the hands of his supervisor whom, he claimed, was rude and abrasive to him in front of other staff.

According to the judgment, which was delivered on July 12 this year, the Trust could be held vicariously liable for the injuries that the supervisor occasioned Majrowski, a homosexual.

Hermaline Ritchie, human resource manager of the Merrils Beach Resort 3 in Negril, believes the common law principles involved in the case, which has persuasive status in the Jamaican courts, warrant careful study here.

“It’s a lesson for all of us,” said Ritchie. “The case shows that if the HR Department had been listening they would not have been in that problem. As HR, we are managers, yes, but sometimes we have to come down, so to speak. Some of the closed-door attitudes and policies that currently operate are going to have to change.”

“I have 181 people here, and I know each by name and can match each face to a name. It’s about getting to know people in a way that inspires their confidence in you. Ask them how they are doing, how their families are doing… that’s how you find things out. We need to operate like counsellors. There is a policy that requires people to pen their grievances.

That has to be looked at more closely, because in some cases people are intimidated by the paper work and others are simply unequal to the task of expressing themselves on paper. so we miss things. I have seen where HR managers fire people based on paper work alone… that is wrong, because the fact is that there are bad managers and supervisors who make life intolerable for employees.”

Marjorie Simpson, the Jamaica Observer Limited’s HR manager, has drafted an anti-harassment policy that is pending promulgation. “The key thing is to ensure that employees understand the type of behaviour that may be deemed harassment,” she said. “This is very wide and includes almost any form of anti-social behaviour that can make a person feel uncomfortable on entering a room.”

Shernette Crichton, director of training and staff development at the Half Moon Resort and author of the book Managing Guest Encounters – a pocket guide for students and employees in the hospitality industry – also sees the need for more guidelines concerning appropriate behaviour in the corporate world.

“It’s the reason I penned the guide,” she said. “A lot of what goes wrong in this industry can be traced to poor communication skills and an inability to understand the effect that our actions – verbal and otherwise – have on others. So sometimes employees may be harassing people without knowing it and that can have dire consequences,” she said.