What is Harassment?
Under the Equality Act 2010, Harassment (legal definition) means conduct that is aggressive, offensive or rude, targeting ‘protected characteristics’ (such as race, religion and sex) that strip you of your dignity. You cannot file claims against employers for bullying, only harassment. You should report instances of bullying to your employer, HR department or the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Harassment can be Direct or Combined. They may happen in one (Direct) or more (Combined) protected characteristics. Types of harassment vary and can occur as a result of poor workplace policies or a lack of reporting, leading to a toxic work environment. It is important to every work that there are procedures in place to prevent this type of conduct, even if you are working from home.
Common examples of specific workplace harassment are:
- Offensive name-calling – this may be derogatory to your race or sexuality
- Purposeful embarrassments – such as exposing private photos, videos or revenge pornography
- Physical threats – threats of harm, revealing your address and threatening to visit and harm you
- Sustained Harassment – any of these categories carried out on more than one occasion, over any period or length of time
- Stalking – following your posts, commenting and private messaging you without your consent, they may create fake accounts even if you have blocked them to bother you
- Sexual Harassment – such as unwanted sexual advances, sexual jokes or verbal harassment making sexually suggestive comments about your appearance, personality or attitude.
Civil remedies (measures or action that the courts will take to restore you to the state you would have reasonably been in should the crime not have been committed) are available for victims of these crimes. This may include damages (compensation) for any loss you may have suffered as a direct result of your harassment, or damages for any anxiety that has been caused as a result of this harassment. If you are aware that you are being harassed and wish to report any incidents to an official body, please see the Conclusion of Bullying at Work.
We will be looking in this section at three common examples of harassment: Physical, Verbal and Online Harassment. All forms of Harassment constitute crimes and may be punishable under the court system in the United Kingdom
Physical Harassment
This is where someone physically interacts with you and/or your personal property/workspace in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, fearful or distressed. Companies will likely have policies that seek to stop physical harassment and provide a means for vulnerable employees to report it to a trusted source (such as HR or to the police).
Physical Abuse: Threats and Property
Physical harassment does not need to hurt you directly. ‘Workplace violence’ extends to direct threats or intent to harm. The harm does not need to be against you or your workmates. Instead, it may be against personal property that belongs to you. If someone defaces or destroys (drawn on, burned, soaked in water, smashed, thrown as some examples) anything that belongs to you, or your workspace, it falls under physical harassment. Remedies to this are widely depending on the severity of the incident. Before taking any action, consult your workplace harassment policy to see what you can do about this situation.
Physical Abuse: Personal
This is where you are physically impacted in a purposeful manner that does not relate to your workplace. If you work in the care you should expect that you may be physically assaulted. If you or someone you know is experiencing physical abuse in the workplace, you need to report it immediately. File a grievance under the grievance procedure in your company through your HR department, or contact someone else to do it for you. If neither option is available, immediately report the issue to the police using 999.
Verbal Harassment
Verbal harassment is an offence committed when you are talked to in an offensive or derogatory language – it may be targeted at your race, religion or sex whilst you are in the workplace. Examples of this type of harassment are:-
Public Order Offences – These are offences that include threatening, insulting or abusive words in a public space (spaces which are not private properties, which also cover the workplace) or posters, emails and other visible representations which are intended to cause harm to you or another employee based on sexual, religious or racial characteristics.
Harassment – When a person engages in conduct that they know, or ought to know is harassing behaviour. The test for whether they are doing so is whether they have harassed you on another occasion by the same person or groups of people. These occasions are not limited to verbal harassment. This still applies even when you are part of a group that is being harassed.
Stalking
This is generally when you have been consistently followed by someone without your consent or knowledge. Generally speaking, you are being stalked if you have been followed, contacted or accosted by an individual who you have made clear to that you are avoiding, or to your knowledge does not know you but has made attempts to follow you one more than one instance, online or physically. Contact a police officer and report the matter.
Online Harassment
Online Harassment takes advantage of the general anonymity of the web to harass employees and businesses. By using an intranet or social media the perpetrator may send insulting, vulgar or inappropriate language to you or your colleagues. Even worse, online harassment may be in the form of scams or phishing (an attempt to gain information from you through fake websites or emails). In some circumstances, it may be your colleagues who are harassing you online. In the workplace, these sorts of messages may impact your ability to do your job and may cause you severe mental and financial harm. This section will attempt to advise you on:
Scams
Scams are, as is implied by the name, a means for a colleague or internet hacker to gain access to your bank account or have you guided to send money to them, usually on the promise of a bigger return on your investment, or for a phoney service. You may be inundated with spam or junk mail, usually in the form of unreliable offers or discount websites that seek to gain access to your personal information.
The scammer or hacker attempts to access your private data through data leaks, social media platforms and the Dark Web and will use it to make fraudulent purchases or posts in your name. This is especially relevant to the workplace – emails or information which have been exposed to scammers may be exploited to gain confidential information from you and the business you work for, jeopardising your career and the business, especially if you work in sectors that greatly value the privacy and confidentiality of the information they hold, including information on their clients.
How businesses protect staff
Businesses typically create ‘intranets’, a form of online file and data sharing using private credentials and a login requirement which limits the interaction that employees have while using the intranet with others who are not permitted to access it. Use these protections when saving sensitive information that relates to your business or employer. Ideally, your professional and personal profiles online should be completely separate. Here are some measures you should take when working or interacting online.
You should be mindful of not exposing any details about your personal life which can lead back to you on social platforms, such as where you work, when you work and who you work with. If you are not happy with everyone on the internet seeing a picture of you or your family and friends or the contents of a post you should not put it up. Use privacy settings to limit your personal information from being revealed to others.
Document everything – oftentimes when you are harassed, it will leave some trace. Remain calm and take details of the time, comments made place and store it somewhere safe for when you make a report. it is important to ensure that you have copies of the abuse, especially if the perpetrator deletes their posts or profile for reference when you are filing a report.
Be wary of any links that are sent to your workplace or personal email from someone you do not know or trust. These may contain viruses that can breach company records and files, resulting in information leaks and potentially resulting in the loss of your job, or jail depending on the seriousness of the information leaked.
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