Mary Tam is a civil engineer who was assigned a month ago to work with a team that builds roads and bridges across Canada. After a couple of weeks, Mary went to the head of HR to report that her boss, Frank Jones, had bullied her on a few occasions. At first she did not want to cause any trouble as she was new and hoped that the incidents would stop. HR immediately interviewed her colleagues and the manager to gather the facts on what was said and how it was said. The picture that emerged was that the manager was concerned that Mary was taking undue risks when it came to operating the machinery, because she sometimes did not wear her hard hat or reflective vest. After that, when she still did not wear these items, he said he would have to take further disciplinary measures. Mary felt this was unfair as she was just doing what Mario or Omar did, yet Frank did not speak to them that way nor did he take any actions against them. Frank told HR that, as Mario and Omar do not report to him, he did not feel it was his place to discipline them.

Was Mary bullied? Please explain the reasoning behind your answer. (1 mark)

If you were the Frank, the manager, what would do going forward? (2 marks)

What steps should HR take to prevent this from happening again? (2 marks)