and you like the work that you’re doing, there is often another person for whom you can work.

As a worst-case scenario, if the company says, “He’s a jerk and he’s always been a jer

 

k, but there’s nothing illegal about him not being a nice man,” you’d unfortunately have to look for alternative employment.

But just remember, the safest answer is always to go to the human resources department first. The HR department isn’t just the investigation department; they might just give you ideas on how to communicate more effectively with your manager. There are other roles they can play beyond the office police.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., JD, SPHR, is Chairman of the Society for Human Resource Management and Senior Vice President of Human Resources for IAC/InterActiveCorp, the parent company to companies like Ticketmaster.com, LendingTree.com, AskJeeves and Home Shopping Network. Photo © istock/Chris Schmidt