Harassment, gender bias, and abuse cost businesses far more than legal fees. Why treating employees well is the foundation of your brand and reputation.
I spend most of my time talking about relationships with clients, referral partners, and the media. But there is one relationship that comes before all of them, and too many business owners overlook it until something goes wrong.
It is the relationship you have with the people who work for you.
In my experience, you cannot build a trusted brand on the outside if trust is breaking down on the inside. Every client interaction, every review, every referral, and every media story eventually passes through the hands of your team. When those people feel respected and safe, your reputation grows almost on its own. When they feel unsafe, belittled, or harassed, no PR campaign in the world can hold the story together for long.
So let's talk honestly about what a hostile work environment really costs, and what you can do starting this week to make sure your business never becomes one.
What a Hostile Work Environment Actually Looks Like
When people hear "hostile workplace," they often picture something dramatic. Sometimes it is. But more often, it builds slowly through behavior that leaders tolerate, excuse, or simply fail to notice:
→ Repeated comments about someone's appearance, body, age, or gender
→ Unwanted touching, advances, or pressure for dates or favors
→ Women being passed over, talked over, or paid less for the same work
→ A manager who yells, humiliates, or singles people out
→ Jokes that "everyone laughs at" except the people they target
→ Retaliation against anyone who speaks up
At the most serious end are sexual assault and abuse. Those are not culture problems to be smoothed over internally. They are potential crimes, and they call for immediate action, outside legal counsel, and in many cases law enforcement.
When I lived and worked in Japan, I noticed that the language had a specific term for workplace bullying by people in authority: power harassment. Japan eventually wrote prevention obligations for it into law. Having a name for something matters. It gives people permission to recognize it and say it out loud. Every business should be just as clear about what it will not tolerate.
The Costs Most Business Owners Never Calculate
Doing the right thing should be reason enough. But if you need the business case, the numbers are hard to ignore.
Legal exposure keeps climbing. In fiscal year 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission secured roughly $660 million for more than 17,600 victims of workplace discrimination. The EEOC reported that $528 million of that came through its pre-litigation process, the highest such total in the agency's 60 year history. Those figures do not include private lawsuits, settlements, or the attorney fees a business pays to defend itself.
Talented people walk out the door. SHRM research found that about one in five Americans had left a job over a five year period because of bad workplace culture, with turnover costs estimated as high as $223 billion. In our industries, where skilled injectors, aestheticians, and front desk staff build personal followings, losing one great team member can mean losing dozens of loyal clients along with them.
Productivity quietly collapses. Gallup's latest State of the Global Workplace report found that only 20 percent of employees worldwide were engaged in 2025, and that low engagement cost the global economy an estimated $10 trillion in lost productivity. People who feel unsafe at work are not bringing their best ideas, energy, or care to your clients.
Your reputation takes the hit last, and hardest. Employees talk to friends, to clients, and to review sites. In medical aesthetics, beauty, and wellness, your brand is built on trust and personal care. A story about harassment or abuse inside a practice that sells confidence and wellbeing is the kind of contradiction the public does not forget.
The Most Dangerous Problem Is the One You Never Hear About
Here is the statistic that should concern every owner most. The EEOC's Select Task Force on harassment found that roughly three out of four people who experience workplace harassment never report it to a supervisor or manager. The most common reasons are fear that they will not be believed, that nothing will happen, that they will be blamed, or that they will face retaliation.
That means if you have not heard any complaints, it does not necessarily mean you do not have a problem. It may mean your people do not trust the system enough to tell you.
This is where my background in healthcare technology training taught me something important. For years I designed learning programs for hospitals and clinical teams, and I saw firsthand that training alone does not change behavior. A slide deck and a signature on an acknowledgment form check a compliance box. Culture changes when leaders model the behavior, when people see concerns taken seriously, and when everyone understands that the rules apply to the top performer as much as the newest hire.
Your Team Is Your First Referral Network
I talk often about Givers Gain, the idea that when you consistently give value to others, it comes back to you. Most people apply that to networking events and referral partners. I believe it starts inside your own walls.
When you treat your employees with fairness, dignity, and genuine care, they become your most credible ambassadors. They recommend your business to friends. They refer talented colleagues when you are hiring. They speak warmly about you to clients without being asked. That is relationship infrastructure in its purest form.
Picture two medspas on the same street. At the first, the owner checks in with staff weekly, shuts down inappropriate comments immediately, and makes sure the newest aesthetician feels as heard as the lead injector. Her team stays for years, clients ask for them by name, and job openings fill through word of mouth. At the second, a talented provider is allowed to belittle the front desk because he brings in revenue. Turnover is constant, clients notice the tension in the room, and the online reviews slowly start to mention it. Same street, same services, very different futures.
When you fail your people, the network effect works in reverse. Every frustrated employee becomes a voice in the community, and those voices travel faster than any press release we could ever write.
Seven Things You Can Do Starting This Week
Prevention is always less expensive, less painful, and more humane than repair. Here is where I would start.
1. Put your standards in writing, in plain language. Create a clear policy that defines harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, with real examples. Make sure every person on your team has read it and knows where to find it.
2. Give people more than one way to speak up. If the only path to report a problem runs through the manager causing it, you do not have a reporting system. Offer at least two channels, such as an owner, an HR partner, or an outside hotline.
3. Respond quickly and seriously, every time. Acknowledge every concern promptly, investigate fairly, document what you find, and close the loop with the person who came forward. Silence after a report teaches your whole team not to bother next time.
4. Make retaliation a firing offense. Protecting people who speak up in good faith is what makes every other policy believable.
5. Train your managers, not just your staff. SHRM found that 76 percent of employees say their manager sets the culture. Supervisors need to know how to recognize problems, respond to concerns, and model respect every single day.
6. Audit pay and promotions for fairness. Gender bias often shows up quietly in who gets raises, prime schedules, and leadership opportunities. Look at the numbers honestly at least once a year.
7. Ask before people leave. Hold regular one on one check-ins and anonymous pulse surveys. Ask what would make work better and what would make someone consider leaving. Then act on what you hear, and let people see that you did.
A quick note: I am not an attorney, and employment law varies by state. If you are building or updating your policies, or responding to a serious allegation, bring in qualified employment counsel and HR professionals early.
Build Trust Before You Need It
Everything I believe about PR comes back to one principle: build trust before you need something. That is true with journalists, with referral partners, and with clients.
It is especially true with your team. The time to create a culture of safety and respect is not after a complaint, a lawsuit, or a viral review. It is right now, on an ordinary Tuesday, through how you speak to people, how you listen, and what you refuse to tolerate.
Treat your people well, and they will carry your reputation further than any campaign we could ever launch.
A strong reputation starts from the inside out. At JNR Communications, we combine Jennifer's nearly 30 years of media relationships with strategic networking expertise to help businesses in beauty, wellness, medical aesthetics & CPG brands build brands that are trusted by clients, partners, and the people who work there. Let's talk about your goals.
📞 (818) 357-7286 | ✉️ Greg@JNRcommunications.com
