Harassment in the Workplace (not Sexual in Nature)

Harassment is defined in our textbook on page 35 as “a violation of Title VII when a member of a protected class is subject to a hostile environment or unwelcome attention unrelated to job performance” (Remington, Heiser, Smythe, & Sovereign, 2012). This can be numerous things. If someone is making racial insults, or slurs that degrade you or even makes racial jokes this is known a racial. If someone shows bigotry toward your religion this is known as religion. Behaviors that are based on gender is known as gender. This is a stereotype on how a man or lady should act. 

If you happen to be older and get teased, left out of meetings or activities or even insulted this is age-based. Then we have just personal harassing which is bullying, humiliation, belligerent comments and puns. If a person is menacing you or makes bodily motions to you, or even a playful shove is known as physical harassing. If an employee is a supervisor or even a manager and they victimize someone below them then that is known as power harassing. As I mentioned there are many different types of harassment at the office that don’t just comprise sexual relations.

“Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive” ( https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/harassment.cfm).

Impacts on an employee can be a wide range of things for example if an employee is being bullied they may not want to come to work and causing them lots of anxiety. It can also cause health and even mental problems. The health problem it could cause besides anxiety also be stress that could lead to an ulcer and possibly higher blood pressure. Each employee is different. It can mentally affect them as it may cause a person to lose sleep at night, maybe believe what is being said and get a complex. If someone is always told they can do a good job or never do their job right they may actually believe that and make it even harder to do that job.

I have seen and experienced many of these oppressions at almost every job I have worked at. I feel so many individuals just don’t know their rights or are to scared to stand up about the harassment going on. A common harassing, I always seen was others bullying at the jobs. I also find that most managers just want to avoid any of these situations, so nothing gets done if it is happening. If everyone who sees this would maybe just stand up and say something, then we can maybe put an end to all this harassment or at least limit them.

What all business needs to remember is the ones in charge such as executives are the ones who are answerable and held accountable for any of the harassing going on. If no act is done as in termination of the one doing the harassing in the office instantly turns into a violent work environment and the manager is responsible. If accountable the manager can avoid the accountability if they can prove they tried to prevent the manner or if the they fail to take gain of the counteractive opportunity.

References

1. [bookmark: _Hlk536828600](n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/harassment.cfm
2. Remington, J., Heiser, R., Smythe, C., & Sovereign, K. (2012). Human Resources Law, 5th Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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