What Constitutes Harassment: 7 Types You Should Know

Many people get confused as to what constitutes harassment. Harassment is described as any unwarranted physical or verbal and virtual act that may cause distress or humiliation, or even threaten the other person or act to violate the dignity of an individual against their consent. Even though this has become a common sight nowadays, it is vital to remember that it is wrong and should be prevented. Most of the time, no action is taken by onlookers when someone is being harassed. It is mainly due to the lack of understanding of the concept of harassment or its severity.

Harassment has been identified as a punishable offense even though the laws and punishments stated may differ from state to state. The main things that are considered include:

• Offender’s intent: whether the actions were intentional or not
• The severity and repetition of the crime

There are various types of harassment based on the offender, his intent, the place of the offense, and the method of harassment. One such harassment is workplace violence or harassment, and it consists of many types. When ignored, it could create a hostile environment at the workplace.

Here are seven types of workplace harassment that constitute harassment in the workplaces:

1. Discriminatory harassment

This is one of the most common and easily recognizable forms of harassment. This form of harassment is often endured in silence as the offender is someone in power or a superior, making it hard for anyone to raise their voice as they fear losing their jobs. 

This harassment can stem from various segregation bases such as gender, religion, disability, age, or even sexual orientation. Discriminatory harassment involves: 

• the victim being harassed based on ethnicity(racial harassment)
• violated based on gender(gender harassment)
• violence based on the person’s disability(disability-based harassment)
• discriminatory harassment can occur in the form of isolation of the victim under-handed insults and jokes
• degrading comments either to the face or behind their back
• intolerance to differences that may be physical or mental
• targeted bullying
• eve-teasing and catcalling
• stereotyped comments and lines
• disregard towards personal beliefs
• unfair criticism

2. Personal harassment

It is a form of workplace harassment that is not based on any segregation but is inflicted on the victim purely based on the wish of the offender. It is bullying and is not illegal but has adverse effects on the harassed. There are many ways for a person to be bullied at work, such as inappropriate comments, humiliation on futile grounds, offensive jokes, intimidation, critical and harsh remarks, or even something as degrading and childish as ostracizing behaviors that can be destructive with little or no proof. It is usually done by superiors or even peers inflicting harm to the victim on a mental scale.

3. Physical harassment 

This type of harassment, also known as workplace violence, involves physical attacks or threats, placing it under the classification of assaults. The physical attacks can be severe and rare or even subtle and frequent, like a small nudge that the watchers will brush off as a mistake happening by chance. But the person on the receiving end should decide if this action is distressing or not. Examples of physical harassment are inflicting harm on the victim, direct abuse, destruction of property to threaten or even displaying anger and strength to warn the target. According to research, there are cases of non-fatal acts of physical violence at the rate of 140 cases per 100,000 workers.

4. Cyberbullying

With the growth of modern technologies, there has been a great improvement in the efficiency of employees and connectivity among peers. Still, to employees’ dismay, there is also a liability to this wonder: Cyberbullying. 

Cyberbullying is a form of online harassment that has become a major issue. This includes sharing unconsented victim information, posting humiliating information or media files, spreading lies about the harassment on online platforms, sending direct threatening messages to the victim, etc. This can destroy the self-respect and self-worth of the victim and can even cause them to be depressed and suicidal. Although it occurs on a virtual platform, it is a disturbing and harmful form of bullying.

5. Sexual harassment 

It is harassment with sexual intent in the form of unwarranted advances or sexual behaviors. Sexual harassment is an illegal form of harassment and is taken very seriously by society. This affects both male and female employees destructively and can show effects almost immediately in the victim’s life.

This type of harassment often leaves psychological scars on the victim and can take prolonged periods to heal. It may be the employee’s boss, colleague, or anyone around them making the attack very disturbing, and it shakes their trust in others to the very core. Some methods used to commit this type of harassment are sharing intimate pictures without consent, inappropriate touches, invasion of personal space, disregard and violation of a person’s dignity, sexual comments, etc. A study by EEOC reported that 25-85% of women are harassed at their workplace. Even considering the lowest statistics means one of every four women faces sexual harassment at work.

6. Quid pro quo Harassment

This is a very vile type of harassment and one of the oldest ways of harassment in the world. The name ‘quid pro quo’ literally translates to ‘this for that. This is a vile and vulgar form of sexual harassment that involves the offender offering something of value or needed by the offended in return for sexual favors. This is considered a form of blackmail. An inflictor may be a senior at work, the boss, or a manager who has the position to exploit his subordinates. Some examples include exchanging romantic and sexual services for job offers, promotion, career opportunities, and even to avoid termination or demotions, which may be hinted to the victim or asked outright.

7. Verbal harassment or verbal abuse

Most of the time, verbal harassment is taken lightly and neglected. Still, in reality, it can deal severe damage to mental health, leading to personality conflicts that can escalate into serious. Unlike other illegal forms of harassment, verbal abuse is not illegal and is mainly about being intentionally mean and unpleasant. This may include threatening, shouting, insulting, or cursing at a person, which often goes unnoticed and unresolved as they are taken as signs of frustration and stress. A study from RAND Corporation in support found that one of every five Americans faces hostile environments at work.

The bottom line

Thus, it can be concluded that any form of inconvenience caused by another person that can harm and degrade the victim’s physical, mental or social health is called harassment. When committed at work, it creates hostile work environments leading to hostile and unfavorable work conditions. Harassment in any form is wrong, vile, and disgusting. The people who hold their silence are equally responsible as the offender. The silence of the onlooker indicates acceptance and justification to such acts of violence that can turn life-threatening and mentally draining. 

To prevent this, many new laws and rules have been brought into effect to reduce the chances of harassment at the workplace as one of the steps towards providing a safe working environment to all of the nation’s workforce. After a long time, this form of violence is recognized as a liable and illegal act of violence.