HIB Policy Application Guidance

This policy applies to all individuals in a paid or unpaid UW-Madison appointment while they are engaged in employment activities. Employee categories may include but are not limited to faculty, academic staff, limited appointees, university staff, graduate assistants, post-doctoral fellows, post-doctoral trainees, and more. Please see employee category information in campus HR policy.

Questions regarding whether an individual holds a paid or unpaid appointment at UW-Madison should be directed to the divisional human resources office in the school/college/division where the individual works, or the central Office of Human Resources – Workforce Relations.

The conduct below is protected by law or otherwise furthers the legitimate academic or operational interests of the institution:

• Behavior protected by academic freedom
• Behavior protected by freedom of expression, including the ability to speak out about workplace concerns, issues, and/or problems, share disagreement with management and/or leadership over administrative matters, policies, and/or processes, share and exchange information about fair treatment and/or fair pay, and any other legally protected speech and/or action
• Fostering the free exchange of ideas, beliefs, opinions, however unpopular and/or challenging
• One’s personal beliefs, opinions, and/or views so long as those things are not communicated in a manner that violates existing university or Board of Regents policy or state or federal law, or is threatening towards the personal safety or security of another and/or the campus, fighting words and/or words that incite violence
• Supervisors or management addressing workplace performance issues through institutional performance management practices that serve a legitimate academic or operational interest, or address behavior or actions through discipline, so long as applicable policies, procedures, and commonly accepted workplace management practices are being observed.

Including, but not limited to:

• Abuse of authority
• Arbitrary or capricious exercise of power, authority, or supervision that harms the rights of the targeted person. Intentional misuse of the employee evaluation process.
• Abusive expression
  • Comments, including spoken, written, recorded, visual, digital, or nonverbal, etc. directed at another person in the workplace, such as derogatory remarks or epithets that are outside the range of commonly accepted expressions of disagreement, disapproval, or critique in an academic culture and professional setting that respects free expression. Includes but is not limited to:
    • verbal abuse
    • Derogatory remarks or epithets
    • Yelling, screaming, and/or swearing at a person
    • Threatening language
    • Intimidating gestures
  • Acts of physical aggression
    • Acts or threats of physical violence
    • Unwelcome physical contact
    • Using one’s body to block or prevent a person from moving around or leaving a workspace, office, lab or other location.
    • Slamming hands, fists, books, equipment, etc., down on tables, desks, workplace stations
    • Throwing items at another and/or in the direction of another
  • Assigning or delegating tasks beyond a person’s knowledge, skill or ability that are known to be outside of their job description and without providing training or education necessary to complete those tasks
  • Exploitation
    • Treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. Does not include sexual exploitation which is covered in UW-Madison’s Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence
  • Harassment
    • Intentional conduct directed at a person that is intended to cause substantial emotional harm to the person. Does not include petty slights, annoyances, or isolated incidents unless extremely serious. Does not include sexual harassment or harassment based on a protected class which is covered by other institutional policies.
  • Impeding a person’s exercise of campus governance rights/procedures/processes
  • Professional exclusion and/or isolation having the effect of harming another person’s reputation in the workplace and hindering another person’s work
  • Sabotage
    • Intentionally disrupting or destroying another person’s work, causing the other person to be unable to complete an academic, operational, or employment activity successfully or timely.
  • Subjecting a person to dangerous tasks without proper training, education or safety precautions
    • Taking credit for work that is not one’s own work (except as it relates to research misconduct and plagiarism, which are outside the scope of the HIB policy)

Individual units and schools/colleges/divisions may engage in informal approaches to address HIB-like behavior before the Office of Compliance has received a formal complaint or after it has reviewed a complaint and declined to initiate a formal investigation. This includes informal inquiries regarding conflicts in the workplace, speaking with affected people, addressing inappropriate behavior, addressing performance issues, and making recommendations to the employing unit. The Office of Compliance may also work with units and schools/colleges/divisions to minimize ongoing conflicts in the workplace pending an investigation.

Individual units and schools/colleges/divisions should notify employees of their right under the policy to request a formal investigation with the Office of Compliance and inform employees of the 300-day timeliness provision to file a formal complaint.

Formal determinations as to whether the institutional HIB policy has been violated are made by the Office of Compliance.