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What You Need to Know About Workplace Harassment
Harassment is a form of discrimination where a person is subjected to
threatening, intimidating, embarrassing, or other offensive behavior because of his/her
gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability or some other distinguishing
characteristic.
Harassment usually occurs when there is a disparity of power between the
harasser and the target of his/her behavior.
Harassment is not always intentional, and doesn't have to be intentional to
be illegal.
Men can harass men, women can harass women, women can harass men and men
can harass women. It's the behavior that counts - not the gender of the participants.
A person can feel harassed even if he or she is not the intended target of
the behavior.
While not all harassing behavior meets the standard of illegal conduct, any
workplace harassment is inappropriate and should not be tolerated.
If you feel harassed at work or you are aware of incidents of workplace
harassment, you have a right and a responsibility to confront the harasser if you feel
safe doing so, or to report the harassment to a manager or an appropriate human resources
person.
It is illegal to retaliate in any way against an employee for complaining
about or reporting workplace harassment.
There is no room for harassment of any kind in a workplace where people
value and respect each other. Harassment is the opposite of respectful workplace behavior.
