City of Madison Workplace Climate Survey Report

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 In the summer of 2019, the Multicultural Affairs Committee (MAC) and Women’s Initiatives Committee (WIC) administered a survey to all City of Madison employees to evaluate the workplace culture and climate, particularly in areas of concern to women and employees of color. A total of 913 employees responded to the survey.

After reviewing and analyzing the results, MAC and WIC identified the following themes:

Safe/Respectful Workplace Concerns

One out of four survey respondents (25%) said they had experienced workplace harassment, bullying, or discrimination in the past year.

 Less than half of respondents reported their experience with harassment, bullying or discrimination. The main reasons these respondents didn’t report is because of the fear of social retaliation (being ostracized or shunned at work), closely followed by not trusting the complaint process or outcome.

 Respondents said most of the harassment and bullying was instigated by peers (40% of incidents), supervisors (33% of incidents), and patrons/members of the public (18% of incidents). Multiple employees in frontline positions described a hostile work environment where patrons/members of the public harass and verbally abuse staff with impunity. Some employees reported being stalked or physically assaulted..."
Workplace climate