Understanding Workplace Harrassment

Eye rolling, glaring, a nasty comment are just a few of the methods of workplace harrassment. I know, it doesn’t seem like anything very significant, but that’s how it either get’s started or continued.

Now the question is, who do you complain to that your boss is ridiculing you? Or, what about that co-worker that won’t help you on projects when needed?

Are you experiencing any type of workplace harrassment?

Workplace harrassment surprisingly enough is quite common. In a Zogby International survey, 37 percent of American workers said they’ve been victims of some type of workplace harrassment.

The perpitrator of this workplace harrassment usually starts out with constant, but subtle innuendos that escalate over time to full fledged harrassment. They may start with just an off color comment at a  meeting and later follows it up with some more gossip to other workers.

If this person is in a supervisory role, their victim could be excused from some of their workload, then later be accused of not performing their entire job. This according to Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group based in Bellingham, Wash.

The emotional toll of regular everyday workplace harrassment is just as severe as that of sexual harassment and other types of bullying behaviors. In today’s fast paced corporate world, some supervisors may even condone some types of harrassment as part of a tough management style.

Things have started changing for the better little by little.

Company owners are realizing that workplace harrassment is generally not good for their businesses. They are seeing an increase in absenteeism, employee turnover and a loss of productivity when these tactics are being employed to try and boost production and keep the workers more in line..

There are several states, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut which have attempted to introduce legislation without success.  Lawmakers seem to want to continue with these measures, however, one was withdrawn in Connecticut recently after some influential business groups opposed it. The bill is expected to be re-submitted though.

Business groups will often use the argument that laws already in place are enough to protect workers. Workplace harrassment does not, however, involve race, age or sex, which do have a protected status under the law. Instead, most workplace harrassment happens mostly because of simple personality conflicts.

A surprising number of workplace harrassment cases involve health care facilities, where the problems can get to be out of control.  Typically, senior hospital workers, in particular doctors and/or supervisors, will be harassing the nurses and technicians. The problem is also commonly found in the field of education and in the legal profession, experts say.

A major share of workplace harrassment involves women.

The Zogby survey showed that 40 percent of these workplace bullies are women. Still, it can be hard to distinguish between the everyday personality clashes and the constant torture of workplace harrassment.

“Many of these situations fall between the cracks of existing state and federal employment law,” said David C. Yamada, a professor at the Suffolk University Law School in Boston, who has actually drafted antibullying legislation.

“There is a real gap in the law that someone could be tormented and subjected to humiliation and really be suffering because of it, but the courts are saying it’s not severe enough for us to allow the lawsuit to go forward.”

These bills that are being introduced are often referred to as “healthy workplace” legislation. The name is more agreeable with business, but they also have an understanding of the serious health toll consistent harrassment in their workplace can have.

Victims can and do become physically ill from the stress.

This kind of stress causes depression, anxiety and even symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). Surveys have also suggested that victims of workplace harrassment will call in sick more often. Whether they are really sick or just avoiding the abusive environment is not always clear though.