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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015 Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Employment law defense attorney Jennifer Bou- man-Steagall speaks during a lunchtime lecture about workplace bullying Wednesday at Buoy Beer Co. Bullies: Curbing hurtful employee behavior Continued from Page 1A Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Warrenton’s Tyler Whitaker, No. 4, drives to the basket in the third quarter of the basketball game at Ilwaco High School Wednesday. Hoops: Warriors fall in season opener at Ilwaco Continued from Page 1A quarter (21-11 after one) and 14 in the second, but we did a good job in coming back.” Warrenton tied the game in the third period then took the lead in the fourth, after out- scoring Ilwaco 27-18 over the second and third quarters. The Warriors’ Christian Holt scored 17 points to lead all players, while freshman Alex Kaino had 16 for Ilwaco. Warrenton picked up 11 points from Tyler Whitak- er, and Hunter Wilson added eight. Ethan Bannister and Zac Tapio scored seven points apiece for Ilwaco. Mules 54, Comets 40 CATHLAMET, Wash. — Travis Pine scored 17 points for Naselle, but the Comets fell in their season-opening game at Wahkiakum Tuesday night. The Mules jumped out to a 15-6 lead after one quarter, on their way to a 54-40 win. Hayden Gudmundsen add- ed seven points for Naselle, while Zach Brown led Wah- kiakum with 16. Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Warrenton’s Hunter Wilson, No. 2, fights for the ball with Ilwaco’s Alex Kaino, No. 5, in the fourth quarter. Judge: Supervision can be cut in half Continued from Page 1A Counties across the state are handling earned discharge differently. Some county pro- bation of¿cers are working with the court and district at- torney’s of¿ce before releas- ing offenders. Clatsop County District Attorney’s Of¿ce claims the of¿ce is getting letters from the probation department say- ing the discharge is already done. “We don’t necessarily op- pose the early termination of probation. It is an incentive to get people to do the things they need to do with their lives,” Brown said. “We just oppose this particular method of doing it.” In addition, Brown said, victims do not have a voice in the process. A victim is not informed about the consid- eration of earned discharge, cannot give input into the pro- people on probation for driv- ing under the inÀuence of in- toxicants, menacing and ¿rst and second-degree attempted assault convictions. ProEation of¿cers will follow state law Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Judge Philip Nelson reads from 2013 Oregon Revised Statutes during a Novem- ber hearing on a probation dispute. cess and only ¿nds out from the district attorney’s of¿ce. “This allows for people to be kicked off probation with- out any judge or prosecutor to be allowed in the process,” Brown said. The four cases brought be- fore Judge Nelson involved Lt. Kristen Hanthorn, who oversees Clatsop Communi- ty Corrections, said the local court ruling will have little impact on how the department continues to handle early dis- charge. Whether an eligible defen- dant is discharged from super- vision or probation, Clatsop Community Corrections no longer has to supervise them. Hanthorn said her depart- ment will continue to follow the state law. Earned discharge is enforced by the state Depart- ment of Corrections, which sends reports with every of- fender who may be eligible for release. Hanthorn’s depart- ment reviews the reports and makes a decision. “We are not going to change anything we are going to do right now,” Hanthorn said. With Clatsop Community Corrections no longer super- vising someone on probation, it becomes similar to a bench probation, where a person re- mains under the jurisdiction of the court. If a defendant violates pro- bation and the violation comes to the attention of the court or the District Attorney’s Of¿ce, it could trigger a probation vi- olation hearing, Nelson said. District Attorney Josh Mar- quis said his of¿ce will have to be especially diligent with monitoring people on felony probation. The of¿ce will also have to inform victims when defendants are no longer being supervised. “What it is going to do is create a lot more work for the District Attorney’s Of¿ce,” Marquis said. Rental: Process likely to begin early 2016 Continued from Page 1A “I urge the City Council to adopt a collaborative ap- proach with the short-term rental homeowners,” Whit- temore said. “Rather than pitting one side against the other, please forgo restrictions in favor of an educational ap- proach.” Council Sue Lorain said education is “always a good thing.” “But I believe, also with education, we need some fun- damental things that give con- sistency to all the rentals,” she said. Lorain asked councilors to choose language carefully and avoid words like “restric- tions” or “bans,” which have negative connotations. “I don’t think it has ever come up that we have ever said we want to ban or prohib- it these homes, but what we want is a regulation for uni- formity,” Lorain said. “I don’t think we need a survey. I think we need some minimum reg- ulation from the start to level the playing for everybody. ” Mixed input Over recent weeks, coun- cilors had solicited letters and comments from homeowners and renters alike. “We are not Seaside or Cannon Beach and I suggest that we not copy their ways,” Whittemore said in opposing regulation. “Let’s keep the ‘heart’ in Gearhart.” Vacation guests Michel and Marian Boileau urged the council not to restrict short-term rentals in Gearhart. Without a short-term vacation home available, “we would not have come to Gearhart for our vacation,” they wrote. Planning Commission Vice-President Richard Ow- sley supported regulation. “By consensus, the Planning Commission recommends and supports short-term rental regulations, and we are ready to begin work immediately,” Owsley told the council. “Successful regulation I’ve seen along the coast in- cludes prudent limitations to the amount of guests a home can have, as well as the amount of vehicles,” wrote Dean McElveen, director of operations for Oregon Beach Vacations. “I am looking for regula- tion that permits rentals while protecting the feel of our res- idential, non-touristy commu- nity,” said Jeremy Davis, who was of¿cially appointed to the city’s Planning Commission Wednesday. South Marion Avenue res- ident Paula Madden urged adoption of measures like those in Cannon Beach. These could limit the number of short-term rentals and estab- lish a minimum number of days per stay to between ¿ve and seven days in the high summer season. “Gearhart should learn from the Cannon Beach ex- ample and follow this lead without delay,” Madden wrote. get a wider range of what’s working,” Lorain said. “So we don’t need to re- invent the wheel,” Widdop added. among groups of employees targeting individuals. It can be overt: power tripping, throwing tantrums, dominating conversations and excessively criticizing. And it can be rather covert, like stealing credit for col- league’s ideas, spreading malicious gossip to under- mine their reputations and advocating for the needs of one department at the ex- pense of other departments. Bullying can even be a product of the workplace itself, fostered by the cut- throat nature of the business. Some sales industries, for example, seem to actively encourage bullying behavior among employees plagued by job insecurity. “Anytime there’s com- petition — anytime there’s a reward for the top dog — you’re going to see bullies,” Bouman-Steagall said. Bullying vs. harassment If companies don’t take steps to address bullying before it gets out of hand — either by disciplining or terminating the problematic employee — workers can lose trust in their managers and be- come less emotionally invest- ed in the company’s success. “If I don’t trust you, I’m not going to give you my extra effort, because I can’t count on you, so it’s not worth it to me,” she said, adding that dis- illusioned and disgruntled em- ployees quickly learn they can put in partial effort and still get 100 percent of their paycheck. Though workplace bully- ing is not illegal per se, it can lead to litigation when it cross- es the (often blurry) line into illegal harassment. This hap- pens when the bully appears to target someone because the victim is of a certain age, race, gender, religion or other class protected under anti-discrimi- nation laws. Bouman-Steagall said that when managers allow bullies to run amok, they sometimes chalk up the dysfunctional work environment to person- ality clashes and the hyper- sensitivity of thin-skinned employees. They dismiss the bullying as joking or as harm- less “locker room” behavior, unaware that the bullying has become a legal liability. Then the company gets sued, and the ex-employee’s attorney may look for a pos- sible connection between the pattern of incessant bullying and straight-up ageism, rac- ism or sexism. In the context of a hostile work environment, something as simple as male employee calling a female co-worker a “bitch” (an in- herently gendered insult) can move a jury from viewing the case as an instance of bullying to one of illegal harassment. “It doesn’t take much,” Bouman-Steagall said. “In my experience, the volcano of evidence that I see is bullying behavior that managers didn’t do anything about because it didn’t have anything to do with protected class at the time. And they just thought, ‘Hey, why can’t people just get along?’” De-escalation Situations in which the bully is an owner who an- swers to no one can present a singular challenge for ag- grieved workers. “Sometimes there isn’t a lot we can do. We can give them information. We can show them how their behavior is impacting employee mo- rale. We can show them how it’s impacting the perception (of the company) in the com- munity,” she said. “But some- times, you just can’t ¿x it. And sometimes we have to under- stand that maybe this isn’t the right place for us anymore be- cause we can’t ¿x it.” Though legislation may one day make workplace bul- lying illegal, companies — if only out of ¿nancial self-in- terest — should not wait for the go-ahead from the state to uproot behaviors that demean or isolate their employees, she said. “<ou’ll ¿nd that if we start addressing bullying behavior, it won’t get to harassment behavior,” she said. “It won’t escalate to that level.” She recommended that companies implement and enforce policies that either prohibit workplace bullying and harassment of any Àavor, or that promote behaviors that create a respectful workplace, one in which bullying — in- tended or unintended — has no place. “As an organization, we should be doing everything we can to make sure that we encourage our employees to treat each other with respect — respect, kindness, courte- sy, professionalism. Because it’s that kind of behavior that makes sure we give amazing customer service,” she said. “If we internally can’t treat each other well, you’d better believe your staff is not going to treat your customer base well.” Joint work session planned Widdop, Lorain and Coun- cilors Dan Jesse and Paulina Cockrum voted to forgo the poll, while Councilor Kerry Smith voted on its behalf. Councilors plan a joint City Council and Planning Commission work session, likely the ¿rst council meet- ing of the new year. In preparation, Sweet was instructed to gather informa- tion on licensing, regulations, safety and health measures, rules and taxation. “I think it would be nice, Chad, for you to get some of the rules of people who have successful rentals, so we can Grea t S election of W rea ths a nd Holid a y D ecor from Fernhill Holly Fa rm s H ig h w a y 101 • Sou th Sea sid e 2480 S. Roosevelt Across th e H W Y from Big foot’s O pen D aily u n til Ch ristm as