Employee Keeps Complaining About a Coworker: When Is It an HR Issue?

An employee keeps coming to you with complaints about someone they work with.  Maybe it is the same complaint every week.  Maybe the issues have been escalating.  At some point you start wondering: when does this become something I have to formally address versus a workplace relationship I need to stay out of?

This is one of the most common situations managers and business owners face, and the answer matters because treating a complaint that requires investigation as just “drama” can create serious legal exposure.

Not Every Complaint Is an HR Issue

Many interpersonal workplace conflicts are not HR issues in the formal sense.  Two employees who genuinely do not get along, who have different working styles, or who disagree about how work should be done are experiencing workplace friction, which is uncomfortable and worth addressing, but not necessarily a legal or policy matter.

Signs a complaint is likely a personality or interpersonal conflict rather than an HR issue:

•       The complaint is about working style, communication preferences, or personal habits

•       Neither party’s ability to do their job is seriously impaired

•       The behavior described is annoying but not threatening, discriminatory, or harassing

•       The same issue recurs without escalation over time

When It Becomes a Formal HR Issue

A complaint crosses into formal HR territory when it involves conduct that is:

Potentially discriminatory or harassing

If the complaint describes behavior that is connected to a protected characteristic like comments about race, gender, age, religion, disability, or sexual orientation, it is a potential harassment or discrimination complaint and requires a formal investigation.  This is true even if the complaining employee frames it as “I just don’t like how they treat me.” Your job is to hear what is actually being described, not just how it is framed. For a step-by-step walkthrough of how to respond when a complaint is filed, see Employee Filed a Harassment Complaint: What Do I Do?.

Threatening or creating a safety concern

If the complaint involves threatening language, intimidation, or conduct that makes the complaining employee genuinely fear for their safety, that is an immediate HR issue requiring prompt action regardless of the underlying relationship.

Creating a hostile work environment

A hostile work environment does not require a single dramatic incident.  A pattern of unwelcome conduct that is severe or pervasive enough to alter the terms and conditions of employment, even if each individual incident seems minor, can constitute illegal harassment.  When an employee describes a pattern, take it seriously.

Interfering with the employee’s ability to do their job

If the conduct being described is materially affecting the complaining employee’s ability to perform their role, it has moved beyond interpersonal friction into something that requires management action. Examples may include being excluded from meetings, having work undermined, or being spoken to in a demeaning way.

The Retaliation Risk of Inaction

Here is the legal risk of treating a formal complaint as informal friction: if the complaining employee later escalates to the EEOC or files a lawsuit, one of the first questions asked will be what did management do when they reported the concern? “We told them to work it out” is not a defensible response to a harassment complaint.

Your obligation when an employee reports potential harassment or discrimination is to take it seriously, investigate it, and take appropriate corrective action.  The threshold for when an investigation is required is lower than most managers realize. For more on the written policies that establish this framework before a complaint arises, see HR Policies Every Small Business Needs.

How to Respond

For interpersonal conflicts: facilitate a mediated conversation if both parties are willing, set clear behavioral expectations for both employees, document the conversation, and monitor the situation.

For potential harassment or discrimination complaints: initiate a formal investigation immediately.  Interview the complainant, the accused, and any witnesses separately and confidentially.  Document everything.  Take corrective action based on your findings.  Follow up with the complainant.

When in doubt about which category you are in, treat it as a formal complaint.  The cost of over-responding to an interpersonal conflict is much lower than the cost of under-responding to a harassment complaint.

Get an Anti-Harassment Policy Template

A clear anti-harassment policy with defined reporting procedures and an investigation process gives you the framework to respond consistently when complaints arise, both before and after.

→  Anti-Harassment & Anti-Discrimination Policy Template — $35 | pragmatichrgroup.com

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Questions about this or other HR topics? Visit pragmatichrgroup.com for more resources.