What is workplace harassment?
What is workplace harassment?
What is not workplace harassment?
What is workplace harassment?
Workplace harassment is where a person is subjected to behaviour, other than sexual harassment (PDF, 784 KB), that:
- is repeated, unwelcome and unsolicited
- the person considers to be offensive, intimidating, humiliating or threatening
- a reasonable person would consider to be offensive, humiliating, intimidating or threatening
Workplace harassment can be committed by:
- an employer,
- worker,
- co-worker ,
- group of co-workers
- client or customer, or
- a member of the public.
Workplace harassment covers a wide range of behaviours ranging from subtle intimidation to more obvious aggressive tactics, including:
- abusing a person loudly, usually when others are present
- repeated threats of dismissal or other severe punishment for no reason
- constant ridicule and being put down
- leaving offensive messages on email or the telephone
- sabotaging a person's work, for example, by deliberately withholding or supplying incorrect information, hiding documents or equipment, not passing on messages and getting a person into trouble in other ways
- maliciously excluding and isolating a person from workplace activities
- persistent and unjustified criticisms, often about petty, irrelevant or insignificant matters
- humiliating a person through gestures, sarcasm, criticism and insults, often in front of customers, management or other workers
- spreading gossip or false, malicious rumours about a person with an intent to cause the person harm
Management action may be considered as workplace harassment where it is used:
- primarily to offend, intimidate, humiliate or threaten workers
- to create an environment where workplace harassment is more likely to occur
What is not workplace harassment?
- A single incident of harassing type behaviour
- Reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way
- Acts of unlawful discrimination, vilification or sexual harassment
More information about the definitions of what is , and what is not workplace harassment is available within Section 1 of the Prevention of Workplace Harassment Advisory Standard 2004 (now known as a Code of Practice).
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