Workplace harassment can take on many different forms, some of which you may not even realize count towards workplace harassment. Workplace harassment does not always mean openly bullying someone in a group setting, or calling them offensive names and slurs. It can actually be far more subtle than that, but just as damaging.
Harassment can easily occur between co-workers, often in the form of inappropriate jokes, or subtle jabs or comments. Workplace legislation usually defines harassment as conduct that is “known or reasonably known” to be unwelcome, so a victim does not have to expressly label it as harassment to make it so. Ostracizing or excluding a coworker intentionally from group activities could also constitute harassment depending on the circumstances.
Workplace harassment can come from the management end as well, but may create a finer line. Simple performance management is not harassment (see below), but harassment may often come from managers in the form of more extreme performance management, often in a style that sets employees up to fail. Overly harsh or demeaning feedback, constant negative and belittling criticism, setting unrealistic or unfair expectations for work, continuous micromanagement meetings, or simply holding an employee to a wildly different standard than their colleagues at the same seniority could all be considered forms of harassment.
It is important also for employers to note that since the pandemic many forms of workplace harassment have simply moved online. Most employers adopted new leniencies to adjust to working from home, but frequent and unnecessary video meetings, continuous after-hours emails from management, and unwelcome comments over an individual’s on-camera appearance have now become common forms of harassment where they may not have been as prevalent before 2020. Similarly, virtual harassment such as via text, instant message, or in a video meeting still constitutes harassment if the conduct is or is reasonably known to be unwelcome.
