By Chuck Doran, MWI’s Executive Director
You enjoy your work, but your supervisor’s behavior has you wondering if you should look for a new job. Lately, he’s been asking questions about your personal life and making comments about your appearance. While the comments aren’t overly inappropriate, they have nothing to do with your role and leave you feeling uncomfortable.
You’d like your supervisor to stop, and you don’t know how to make that happen. Making a formal complaint to human resources seems like a big step. Even if you had a way to prove your allegation (which you don’t), you don’t want to risk your career by gaining a reputation for being difficult. Talking directly with your supervisor seems risky, too. You worry that he’ll react poorly and stop including you in interesting projects—or worse.
So what can you do?
Organizational ombuds can help employees in situations just like this. Ombuds provide a confidential space for employees to talk through concerns and consider their options before deciding what, if anything, to do.
I have served as an organizational ombuds for more than 25 years and encountered situations like this one multiple times. In my experience, an employee in this situation feels alone and confused. They want to find a solution without escalating things or revealing their identity.
There are four key features that distinguish an ombuds resource from other organizational resources and can make them appropriate in this situation:
1. Independence: A well-structured ombuds resource operates independently and has full discretion in how they carry out their duties. They have no formal decision-making power or disciplinary authority. An ombuds’ independence allows them to provide support to employees that may not be available elsewhere.
2. Impartiality: An ombuds does not advocate for employees or for the organization. Instead, they advocate for a fair process and positive change, all while remaining neutral. Their role is generally to help employees address concerns and help organizations address systemic issues.
3. Informality: Speaking with an ombuds doesn’t initiate formal complaints or investigations because conversations with an ombuds are informal and off the record. Talking with an ombuds is voluntary and doesn’t require an employee or the ombuds to take any specific action.
4. Confidentiality: An ombuds will not reveal the identity of employees they speak with unless the employee gives their permission or there’s an imminent risk of serious harm.
Together, these standards of practice position ombuds well to help employees raise concerns and generate solutions before things escalate.
How This Works In Practice
Let’s look at a hypothetical example of how an organizational ombuds might help you in this situation.
The ombuds creates space for you to talk through what’s happening, asks questions, confirms their understanding of your concerns and helps you think through possible next steps. Hearing them acknowledge your concerns gives you perspective and confidence, and it makes it easier to come up with options to address your supervisor’s behavior.
You tell the ombuds that the hardest part of this situation is that you feel like you can’t talk to anyone about it. The ombuds asks who you talk with about your challenges at work, and you mention your colleague Jordan. The ombuds asks: What do you think would happen if you raised this with Jordan? This idea seemed too risky before, and talking it through helped you develop an approach that might work.
You decide to talk to Jordan about your supervisor’s behavior. Jordan tells you that she had a similar experience with the same supervisor and even changed teams to avoid him. In fact, Jordan has heard that your supervisor has been treating people this way for a while and continues to do so. What felt like an isolated situation starts to look like a pattern.
A Common Question From Leaders
This raises a common and fair question from leaders: If conversations with the ombuds remain confidential, won’t the organization be prevented from addressing serious problems?
In my experience, the opposite is often true. If organizational ombuds hear concerns early and informally, they can be the first to detect patterns that could pose cultural or legal risks. The ombuds is meant to function as a “smoke detector,” so formal channels like HR and compliance have the information they need to put out the fire. Ombuds do not reveal the identities of employees who speak with them; instead, they share patterns and trends that would most likely remain hidden from formal channels and leadership. Providing employees with a confidential, informal, impartial and independent resource can increase the likelihood that serious concerns will surface and be addressed.
Let’s see how the ombuds could maintain confidentiality while working with you to raise your concerns:
You raised your concern with Jordan, and the two of you decided to talk with the ombuds together. You and Jordan then decided to encourage other employees affected by this supervisor to speak with the ombuds. With the employees’ permission, the ombuds raised this pattern with the chief HR officer, without naming you or any other individuals.
With this information, and after checking other sources, the CHRO concluded that a general climate assessment in that area would likely surface any existing concerns within the department. The assessment confirmed that multiple employees have been affected by the supervisor, so the organization took steps to address the behavior and prevent it from recurring. Seeing an opportunity to clarify appropriate behaviors for all supervisors, the ombuds shared lessons from this situation with learning and development, which incorporated this information into its training and onboarding programs for new supervisors.
Situations like this are not uncommon, and they often remain unaddressed unless employees have multiple avenues to surface concerns before they escalate. An organizational ombuds doesn’t replace formal channels; instead, an ombuds can serve as an early-warning system that enables organizations to respond effectively to the inevitable challenges below the surface. Here are some ideas on how to launch and make the most of an ombuds resource.
Chuck Doran is an experienced organizational ombuds, mediator, and dispute resolution trainer. Chuck is a Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner (CO-OP®) and a member of the International Ombuds Association who completed ombuds training with the IOA in 1995. Chuck has served as an organizational ombuds for companies, universities, and other organizations since 1997. A mediator since 1992, he is a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals and the CPR Dispute Resolution Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. Chuck is also a Distinguished Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators (IAM) and a past president of IAM’s Board of Governors.
This article was originally published by Forbes Business Council on May 13, 2026, and is reprinted here with permission.
MWI partners with organizations to design and support organizational ombuds programs, providing a confidential and informal space for individuals to raise concerns, explore options, and address issues early. Ombuds services also help leadership better understand patterns and systemic issues while protecting individual confidentiality.
Learn more about MWI’s organizational ombuds services.
