What is harassment? Workplace harassment.
Harassment is an offensive workplace conduct which is generally due to an unwarranted, unwelcome behaviour towards a workplace colleague from a co-worker, a boss, a client or a vendor. Workplace harassment can be unlawful depending on the circumstances in which it may happen.
Harassment is an incidence of offensive, undesirable, biased and mishandled behaviour which may be due to the offended person’s age, sex, colour, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, etc. Examples of harassment include:
- Offensive comments, jokes and remarks directed towards a co-worker
- Name-calling and using offensive nicknames
- Using pornography to offend a co-worker, usually of the opposite sex
- Assaulting and bullying a colleague
Workplace harassment can exist in all types of workplace environments. For the management to understand and resolve harassment cases, an open and friendly workplace environment is an indispensable requirement. The HR staff can organize annual sessions with the employees to make them aware of things that come under harassment, make them aware about the workplace harassment policy and its statutes and thus help create a safe, unbiased and friendly workplace environment for all.
