In a prior post I talked about trust and how important it is in all our relationships. Lack of trust often results in legislation of workplace issues such as harassment, discrimination and the open and transparent financial dealing of companies.

I have often wondered if legislation on these types of issues actually works. Does it stop harassment or discrimination, or does it simply stop people from making open comments and exhibiting blatant disrespect? Are we really changing attitudes towards inappropriate behaviour, or we teaching people not to exhibit this behaviour in an open environment?

Are the biases still an issue when it comes to performance appraisals, advancement, project opportunities, etc.? At the end of the day is it any less damaging to a worker to have discrimination and harassment issues that are less easily identified because they have been forced underground by people who have only learned not to be outspoken about them?

I'm not suggesting for a moment that we get rid of the laws that protect workers against such inappropriate behaviour. I just wonder what we might do to add checks and balances to make sure that “underground” harassment and discrimination is also identified and dealt with.