Honing in on Harassment: 5 Types of Workplace Harassment and What to Do if You Spot Them

There are many different types of workplace harassment, and they often intersect, causing even more mistrust and destruction. Workplace harassment of any kind can impede a person’s ability to do their job as well as make daily life miserable both in and out of work. 

Harassment is difficult to overlook once you’ve seen it, but the problem is that it can be even more difficult to spot. Unfortunately, it happens in the workplace more than most people realize. Below, we discuss several of the more common workplace harassment types and what you can do if you experience them or see them happening to someone else. 

1. Discrimination

Almost all types of harassment are discriminatory in nature, but actual discrimination occurs when one person ridicules, harms, or disciplines another based on a specific attribute. Some of the more common discriminatory harassment types include racial, religious, and sexual orientation harassment. Inclusive employment and diversity in the workplace are vital to providing a safe and satisfactory environment for all employees, so discrimination of any kind should not be tolerated. 

2. Personal Harassment

Personal harassment is bullying at its worst. This type of harassment isn’t based on any particular class or attribute, such as gender, race, or religion. Rather, it’s just harassment for the sake of harassment. 

This form of harassment is mentally damaging, and it can include offensive jokes, inappropriate comments, critical remarks, humiliation, ostracizing, intimidation, or any other behavior that’s upsetting to the targeted person.

3. Physical Harassment

Some industries are more prone to physical harassment in the workplace than others. For example, healthcare workers and police officers risk physical assault daily. With that said, anyone in any industry can be a target for physical harassment. Both threats of physical assault and actual physical assault are considered physical harassment and should be dealt with swiftly and sternly. Many companies have zero-tolerance policies when it comes to physical harassment, with termination of employment being the only available outcome. 

4. Power Harassment

Power harassment takes place when someone higher up in the company takes advantage of a coworker or subordinate. This type of behavior can be verbal or physical but is most often psychological. For example, the harasser may make demands that are difficult to meet or may assign demeaning tasks that are far below a person’s abilities. This behavior might even extend into the harassed worker’s personal life. 

This type of workplace harassment can be difficult to prove, and most people simply quit their jobs to stop the harassing behavior. 

5. Psychological Harassment

Psychological harassment is any behavior that negatively impacts someone’s mental wellbeing. This type of harassment is meant to demean, put down, and belittle someone on a personal or professional level (often both). 

Victims of psychological harassment often experience physical and emotional side effects of the abuse. These negative effects tend to carry over into their personal lives as well. Someone who experiences psychological harassment in the workplace will feel ignored, devalued, and unimportant, leading to self-consciousness and second-guessing their abilities to do their job effectively. 

Now that you know the most common types of workplace harassment, you are better prepared to identify this type of behavior and do something about it. As an employer, you can implement policies that discourage harassing behaviors among your staff. As an employee either experiencing harassment or witnessing it, speak up. If your boss is the offender, go over their head. There is no room for harassment in the workplace, so don’t just sit idly by – stop it.