There has been a lot of focus put on bullying of children either at school or online these days. However, bullying is nothing new and it is not just relegated to the playground. In fact, people in the workplace often feel that they are being bullied. Or, some feel they are being harassed.
Are these two terms the same thing? Or, is there a difference between being bullied and being harassed at work? Either way, both harassment and bullying contribute to a toxic and hostile work environment. It is important to know the difference, however, as it can determine if you need to be using an discrimination attorney or not.
In this article, we will go over exactly what the differences are so if you need to escalate a claim to your superiors you can make sure to get satisfaction.
What is bullying?
If you have ever been faced with a threat to make sure something is done at work then you have encountered bullying. An example would be if your superior was insistent on you helping them with some work related matter and telling you that your promotion depends on it being done correctly. This is crossing a line that divides motivating somebody to work well and bullying them into something.
The effect is that you feel powerless and end up going along to get along so you don’t feel like there will be repercussions or that you don’t want to be seen as not being a team player.
Being told by a superior that you aren’t a team player is a thinly veiled threat that a performance report will look unkind toward you if you don’t do what is being asked. Unfortunately, in many places this is not illegal behavior. Unless you are in a protected class like a minority or a senior, or that you feel like there will be physical harm done toward you if you don’t comply.
What is harassment?
Harassment at work comes in many forms, but the basics of it is that you are made to feel uncomfortable based on certain things about you.
Some of the most common forms of harassment are toward minorities, sexual orientation or gender. When comments are being made about any of these differences, or there are promotions being passed over for these reasons it is harassment.
Another prevalent form of harassment is sexual. Somebody could be made to feel that they should perform some kind of sexual act in return for job security or it could be just off-color jokes or remarks that make somebody feel uncomfortable.
The difference between them?
Where harassment is illegal and the law provides a lot of protection against it, bullying is in more of a grey area. The way to deal with either one is to report incidents to your HR department or follow the guidelines in your employee handbook.
Make sure to document every incident and try to secure witnesses who can verify the event. Then, keep records of all of the reports you file, with whom and when so you can have evidence in case things escalate.
