Speaker Profile
SUSAN STRAUSS
Dr. Susan Strauss is a national and international speaker, trainer, consultant, and a recognized expert on workplace and school harassment and bullying. She conducts harassment and bullying investigations and functions as an expert witness in harassment and bullying lawsuits. Her clients are from business, education, healthcare, law, and government organizations from both the public and the private sector.
Dr. Strauss has conducted research, written over 30 books, book chapters, and journal articles on harassment, bullying, and related topics. She has been featured on 20/20, CBS Evening News, and other television and radio programs as well as interviewed for newspaper and journal articles such as Harvard Education Newsletter, Lawyers Weekly, and Times of London.
Susan is the recipient of the Excellence in Educational Equity Award from the Minnesota Department of Education for her work in sexual harassment in education. She has spoken about sexual harassment at international conferences in Botswana, Egypt, Thailand, and the U.S. She consulted with the Israeli Ministry of Education, as well as with educators from Israel, England, Australia, St. Maartin, Bali, and Canada. She traveled to Poland and conducted research on sex discrimination and sexual harassment in Polish workplaces with Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. She has consulted with health professionals in Beirut regarding violence in healthcare. Susan has a doctorate in organizational leadership. She is a registered nurse, has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and counseling, a master’s degree in community health, and a professional certificate in training and development. She has been involved in the harassment and bullying arena since 1985.

Investigate, Document, Excel: A Writing Bootcamp for HR
Workplace investigations are not limited to addressing harassment complaints; they encompass a broad spectrum of misconduct, from theft and safety issues to retaliation, substance abuse, and policy violations. These investigations are crucial for maintaining a safe and equitable work environment. The responsibility often falls on HR or management, and determining the need for an outside investigator can be ..

Legal and Ethical Challenges for Employers: An Increase In Burnout, Stress, and Mental Illness
Employers are seeing more mental health issues in their workforce than ever before. Long COVID has enhanced mental health concerns even more. Each year 1 in 5 adults is stricken with a mental illness (National Institute of Mental Health), making mental illness an everyday reality for many of your employees. Yet only 1 in 3 people seek help with their illness. The ADA, HIPPA, FMLA, and most states’ human/civ..

Emojis, AI, Algorithms, Vulnerable Workers and Systemic Harassment – YIKES! Are You Ready to Apply the New Proposed EEOC Guidelines and Court Rulings?
A court in Louisiana found a winking smiley face coupled with a narrative about a colleague’s good looks, to be flirtatious and offensive. But was it illegal? Saying the N-word one time may be severe enough for the case to go to court or can it?You are used to knowing about the typical issues around harassment so what in the world is going on now!? What is it with emojis, and AI? You have been in Human Reso..

Managers and HR – Best Practices for Virtual and In-Person Onboarding Your New Hire: Policies, Practices, and Processes
As managers and HR professionals, we’re in a new world creating new challenges in the way we do our work including how we welcome and engage our new hires virtually and in person. We have new challenges now with the virtual and hybrid workplace – how do we onboard a new employee virtually? Onboarding virtually creates new opportunities that we may continue to use even when the pandemic is not as much of a t..

BEST SELLER - How Do They Work Together—Or Not? : The Complexity & Interplay Among the ADAAA, FMLA, and Worker’s Comp
Challenges - It’s confusing, isn’t it? How are we supposed to keep it all straight when there are times when the legal requirements of both the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the American Disabilities Act Amendment Act (ADAAA) are similar, yet at other times one law contradicts another? We find that we can’t comply with both laws at the same time, so which one takes precedence over the other? And where..

BEST SELLER - LGBT Inclusion in the Workplace: Navigating Policies, Procedures, and Practices
Workplaces have made progress towards LGBTQ equality yet LGBTQ workers still go to work every day with the fear that they might lose their jobs because of whom they love and who they are. There is no federal law protecting the LGB community from workplace discrimination and harassment. There is confusion among organizations as to whether the federal civil rights law Title VII protects gay, lesbian, and bise..

BEST SELLER - Nurse to Nurse Bullying: A Sepsis in Healthcare
Nurse to nurse bullying threatens the safety and well-being of patients and nurses. The misconduct is a major problem to all nurses and causing 60% of new nurses to leave their first nursing position and 1 in 3 nurses to quit the profession. Sometimes the bullying is so subtle it is almost invisible yet causes cumulative damage to the targeted nurse as well as those nurses who witness the behavior. The Join..

Care of the LGBTQ Patient and Their Families: Policies, Procedures, Practices and Laws
Whether your employer is a clinic, a hospital, home health, or long term care; whether you are an MD, RN, an occupational therapist, a receptionist, or in the C-Suite, approximately 5% - 10% of your patients may be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Additional patients may be transgender, intersex, or questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation. The healthcare needs of LGBT patients may appear to be the..

Communicating in Challenging Situations
What do you think of when you think of – communication? How adept are you at communicating with others? Do you ever wish you could say “No” and not feel guilty? Do you and your spouse seem to be speaking in two different languages? And, how about that boss of yours – always disrespectful and rude – how do you deal with that? Communication skills are important in working and living together effectively..

EEOC Report: Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Not Working - Workplaces Fail To Implement Systemic Changes
You have been in Human Resources or management for years. Your plate is full - too much to do and to know in your increasingly stressful job. You are expected to stay current in discrimination and harassment case law for all the federal and state-protected classes. Are you current? It seems like an unending responsibility. You remember hearing something in the news about a change in the pregnancy law, but c..

Essentials for Documenting Investigations: HR and Management’s Responsibility to Minimize Liability
As the saying goes - If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen! Documentation is essential for many legal issues, disputes, audits, meetings, and decision making, to name a few. Perhaps nowhere is it more critical than when documenting your investigation. Your documentation memoralizes the entire investigation, it minimizes confusion, corroborates stories and evidence, demonstrates patterns of behavior and s..

Mental Illness, ADAAA, and the Workplace: Taking Responsibility as an Employer
More and more people are complaining of feeling depressed, hopeless, and just plain out of sorts. Therapists indicate that more and more people are seeking therapy, especially since the 2016 election. Millennials, the largest workgroup in our workplaces, have an increase in depression. These are your employees—what are your responsibilities as a manager or HR professional in recognizing and helping them? Ho..

Practical Steps to Applying Critical Thinking in the Workplace: No, This is Not Just Another Boring College Class
It is our nature to think - we all do it. However, a good share of our thinking is biased, distorted, or incomplete. Critical thinking is an essential skill for both managers and employees. Few of us are effective critical thinkers though research suggests that leaders believe they think quite well. Critical thinking ensures we pose the right questions, view others’ viewpoints with merit, and challenge assu..

Virtual and in-person Onboarding: Beyond Handbooks, Benefits, and Photo IDs
Whether you call it Onboarding, Induction, Enculturation, or New Employee Orientation (NEO), the process used to welcome and train your new employees while capturing their excitement of a new job and reducing their new job jitters is critical to their success. NEO is not a one-day event, but rather a process that begins after their acceptance of the job and extends through the first year of their employment..

A Leer, A Pat, A Joke, A Gesture, An Innuendo, A Kiss: Are You Prepared To Be the Next Social Media Blitz, Identified on #MeToo, or a Headline in the Newspaper?
Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Garrison Keillor, members of Congress, and various State lawmakers have been accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault. But there is a difference between pulling one’s pants down in front of a female colleague at work and touching a woman on her buttocks during a photo op—isn’t there? What is that difference? Are both examples considered sexua..