It is the policy of Houchens to promote a professional and productive work environment and prohibit harassment in the workplace. Houchens will not tolerate verbal or physical conduct by any employee that harasses, disrupts, or interferes with another's work performance or that creates an intimidating, offensive, retaliatory, or hostile environment. Employees are expected to maintain a productive work environment that is free from harassing or disruptive activity and no form of harassment will be tolerated.
Harassment includes any verbal, written, or physical act in which race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, military status, or other factor protected by law is used or implied in a manner which would make a reasonable employee uncomfortable in the work environment or which would interfere with the employee's ability to perform the job.
Harassment can occur not only through personal interaction, but also through communication by telephone, text messaging, or email/instant messaging. Harassment can also occur through posting information or comments on the internet, including but not limited to postings made on blogs, chat rooms, or social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Harassment of any kind is prohibited regardless of whether it occurs in person or over the telephone or internet, and regardless of whether it occurs during working hours or at a time when an employee is not at work.
Houchens' prohibition of harassment includes, but is not limited to, all forms of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes, but is not limited to, making unwanted or unwelcome sexual advances, requests or demands for sexual favors, remarks or jokes of a sexual nature, and other unwanted and unwelcome visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature whereby:
a. Submission to such conduct is made explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment;
b. Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for employment decisions, such as, but not limited to, promotions, transfers, disciplinary actions, job assignments, wages or assigned duties; or
c. Such conduct interferes with work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.
Other offensive conduct or behavior of a sexual nature by supervisors, members of management and other employees is also strictly prohibited. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to:
a. Unwanted or unwelcome physical contact or contact of any kind, including sexual flirtations, touching, advances or propositions.
b. Verbal conduct of a sexual nature, such as lewd comments, sexual jokes or references and offensive personal references.
c. Demeaning, insulting, intimidating or sexually suggestive comments about an individual’s body or personal appearance.
d. The display of demeaning, insulting, intimidating or sexually suggestive objects, pictures, or photographs.
e. Demeaning, insulting, intimidating or sexually suggestive written, recorded or electronically transmitted messages.
Any other conduct or behavior of a sexual nature that interferes with work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.
Harassment of any kind, whether committed by supervisory personnel, non-supervisory personnel, customers, vendors or any other persons is specifically prohibited as unlawful and against stated company policy. This policy applies to all employees, customers, vendors and other persons.
It is the responsibility of all employees, including members of management, to bring attention to any evidence of harassment or retaliation and to report any act or event that is believed to be a violation of this policy so that the matter can be promptly investigated and appropriate action taken.
It is further the responsibility of every member of management to ensure that this policy is strictly enforced and that all stores, departments, or other areas of the organization that are under their responsibility are free from conduct that causes, or reasonably could be considered to cause, an intimidating or offensive working environment. EEO compliance and investigation complaints of discrimination will be a component of training for all managerial and supervisory employees.
No supervisor, member of management or other employee shall threaten or insinuate, either explicitly or implicitly, that another employee's refusal or willingness to submit to sexual advances or requests or demands for sexual favors will be used as a basis for employment decisions, such as, but not limited to, promotions, transfers, disciplinary actions, job assignments, wages or assigned duties.
Any employee who believes that he or she has been harassed or retaliated against in violation of this policy should report the situation as soon as possible to the employee's supervisor. If the complaint involves an employee's supervisor, or the employee is uncomfortable for any reason in reporting the complaint to the employee's supervisor, then the employee should report the matter to any other member of management, or call the Personnel Department at (270) 843-3252, extension 2851. The complaint may be oral or written in the language of the employee's choosing. Houchens also encourages employees who feel they have been harassed or retaliation of this policy to put the person committing the harassment or retaliation on notice that his or her behavior or conduct is unwanted and unwelcome and should stop immediately.
All reports and complaints of harassment and retaliation will be investigated promptly, fairly, and thoroughly, and as confidentially as possible, by either a supervisor, manager, and/or member of the Human Resources Department. Investigations will include documentation of the complaint; a finding of whether discrimination occurred, did not occur, or could not be determined; interviews of the complainant, the individual(s) alleged to have committed, participated in, or condoned the alleged conduct, and witnesses; a review of relevant documents; contemporaneous notes of the investigation and any conclusions; and when discrimination has been found; and upon completion of the investigation, a summary report of the investigation will be provided to the Human Resources Department. Any employee who is found to be in violation of this policy is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
Documents related to an investigation of a complaint of harassment or retaliation will not be retained in the complainant's personnel file, but in a separate secure location. Disciplinary action taken against employees for violation of this policy will be retained in the violator's personnel file. For complaints in which no conclusion or determination could be reached on the complaint, the investigative documents will be retained for 10 years in the Human Resources Department.
Any form of retaliation against an employee who, in good faith, files a complaint of harassment or an employee who participates in the investigation of the complaint is strictly prohibited. Violations of this non-retaliation policy will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.
Employees who feel they have been subjected to harassment or retaliation in violation of this policy and employees who become aware of other employees being subjected to harassment or retaliation have a responsibility to report the situation as soon as possible in accordance with the complaint procedures set forth in this policy.
Any updates to or revisions to this policy will be disseminated to all employees.