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In South Africa, it has been a year since the Code of Good Practice on the Prevention and Elimination of Harassment in the Workplace was gazetted. Since then, the Department of Employment Labour has made greater strides towards the prevention and elimination of harassment in the South African workplace. Yet, both employers and employees need to be aware of the various forms of harassment that can take place in the workplace and how to protect both employees and organisations alike.
What exactly is workplace harassment?
While most forms of harassment are verbal and psychological in nature, there are also more serious forms such as physical and sexual harassment. The most important point to bear in mind is that all forms of workplace harassment are illegal. Not only do such behaviours affect employee productivity levels, well-being and sense of safety at work, but the organisation’s legal liability is also affected if workplace harassment is not effectively dealt with.
In a broader nutshell, workplace harassment can often include the following:
- Offensive jokes, slurs, epithets (name calling)
- Physical assaults or threats
- Intimidation
- Ridicule or mockery
- Insults or put-downs
- Offensive objects or pictures
- Nuisance behaviour that interferes with work performance
Harassment also occurs in a number of different settings or circumstances such as:
- A harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, manager or boss, a supervisor from another department, an agent of the employer, a co-worker or even a non-employee.
- The victim is not necessarily the only person that can be affected by harassment since anyone in the environment who is exposed by the offensive conduct is also impacted.
Workplace harassment is never easy to deal with and it can be especially difficult to handle if the person who is harassing you is also your manager.
The most common forms of workplace harassment
While workplace harassment can take many forms, every incident doesn’t always play out in the same way. Hence, understanding the different forms of workplace harassment can help you to properly identify when it is happening to you or one of your colleagues.
Verbal Harassment
Verbal harassment can be an unending cycle of destruction that not only threatens your career but can be injurious to your mental and emotional health. It can manifest as offensive gestures, unreasonable criticism or demeaning remarks. Verbal harassment can be difficult to identify since it is violence in a non-physical form. In certain instances shouting, cursing or making inappropriate comments or jokes about a colleague is interpreted as a form of personality conflict even though such can have a detrimental psychological effect on the victim that leads to anxiety, depression and high blood pressure.
Psychological Harassment
Psychological harassment is comparable to verbal harassment yet is more covert. It consists of manoeuvres such as withholding information, exclusionary tactics or gaslighting, which is a form of manipulation using psychological methods that cause another person to question their own sanity or powers of reasoning. Such actions are carried out with the intention to break down the victim, undermine them and erode their self-esteem. Making impossible demands, taking credit for someone else’s work, imposing unreasonable deadlines, continuously opposing everything someone says or relentlessly demanding that an employee performs demeaning tasks outside of their scope of work, may not seem like typical harassment but this is a calculated form of psychological bullying.
Racial Harassment
Someone may experience racial harassment due to their race, skin colour, ancestry, origin country, or citizenship.
Even perceived attributes of a certain ethnicity such as hair texture, skin colour, accent, food and clothing preferences, the use of certain slang words, customs, beliefs, holidays or celebrations may be the reason. Racial harassment often plays out in the following ways:
- The use of slurs in general or specifically directed at the victim
- Insulting or demeaning comments about the victim’s race or a race as a whole
- Sharing of racial jokes, memes, or pictures
- Acting disgusted to be around the victim, for instance, refusing to share a cubicle
- Intolerance of differences
Religious Harassment
Religious harassment is often linked to racial harassment but is targeted at someone’s religious beliefs.
Someone with religious beliefs that differ from the perceived “norm” may be a target of workplace harassment or intolerance in a number of ways, including:
- Intolerance of religious holidays
- Intolerance of religious traditions and customs
- Malicious religious jokes
- Demeaning stereotypical comments
Gender Harassment
Gender-based harassment is a form of discrimination towards a person based on their gender expression. It can happen to cisgendered women or men, that is, people whose gender identity matches that which they were assigned at birth, trans women or men, and non-binary employees.
Negative stereotypes in terms of gender and how men or women should behave or what they should look look like are often a target of harassment. Some examples include:
- A male nurse faces harassment for doing what is generally perceived as a woman’s job
- A female banker is overlooked for a promotion because she’s not perceived to be “leadership material”
- A non-binary person is referred to as “it” by a colleague
- A transgender man is addressed as “she” in an email
Cyberbullying (Digital Harassment)
Cyberbullying or digital harassment is the latest form of harassment and although it takes place over online platforms, it can be just as harmful as face-to-face bullying. Cyberbullying includes posting threats or humiliating comments on social media, making false allegations about someone on social media, creating fake profiles with the intention of bullying someone online and creating a web page about someone with the intention to belittle and mock them.
Physical Harassment
Physical harassment in the workplace can happen in varying degrees. Such can include unwanted gestures, for instance, touching another employee’s clothing, hair, face or any other part of the body and more dramatic gestures like violent threats, inflicting damage to personal property or physical assault. Certain types of physical harassment are often downplayed as a joke if no actual physical harm was caused. Hence, when someone consistently kicks, shoves or blocks another colleague, while the victim may never have actually been hurt by these actions, this may not be viewed as actual harassment, especially if these actions are carried out by a manager or otherwise high-ranking employee.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is a serious offence and happens more frequently than most of us realise. According to a McKinsey survey, at least 35% of female respondents have been subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace. What is also interesting to note is that it is a rampant crime that is not only experienced by women since anyone can be an instigator or victim of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment, therefore, includes inappropriate touching and unwanted sexual advances, sexual jokes, pornography, sexual messaging and requiring sexual favours in exchange for job security or a promotion. Sexual harassment in the workplace is not always obvious. Often, it is heavily disguised as harmless banter, inoffensive remarks that go hand-in-hand with sexual undertones or gestures, or awkward but seemingly innocent comments that portray certain people, often women, in a negative light. This is often a grey area that allows offenders to get away with bad behaviour. Many victims of sexual harassment are loathed to draw attention to themselves, thinking that the situation will improve. Some victims believe that they will face job loss should they report the harassment incident. Nevertheless, situations that make someone feel uncomfortable should be reported.
Workplace Harassment is a serious issue
Since workplace harassment is a serious issue with a number of grey areas, it is important to know if you or someone else is being harassed at work. Hence, if you happen to experience or witness behaviours that appear criminal in nature, you should report the incident. Even if you fear retribution and are worried about losing your job, always bear in mind that you are protected by workplace harassment laws. Not only are there laws that protect you from the person who is harassing you, but you are also protected by law from an employer who fails to protect you. Also, if you know of someone who is being harassed at work, you cannot lose your job by reporting the incident. It is also important to bear in mind that harassment in the workplace may or may not result in physical evidence. Therefore, understanding what is happening to you can help when reporting an incident to your Human Resources Department.
Reference sources: misa.org.za|