Support for Targets of Workplace Bullying and/or Harassment in East Anglia

About Us
This is a new support network and was founded in December 2004 by people who had experienced bullying and/or harassment at work in the East-Anglian region. We have all been victors in our personal fights against bullying and/or harassment and we share our experiences to help others recover from the effects of Bullying and Harassment.

Harrassment

The intention of this page is not to reinvent the wheel and repeat information that many other websites already provide, rather, to give you a brief summary and direct you to more detailed websites.

Brief description of Harrassment

Harassment can be related to a number of issues including age, sex, race, disability, religion, nationality, personal characteristics of the individual.

Essentially it is unwanted conduct affecting the dignity of the individual in the workplace. It may be persistent behaviour or an isolated incident. The key is that the recipient views the behaviour as demeaning and unacceptable and in addition that the behaviour may be used to the recipient’s detriment as a basis for employment decisions.

Sexual Harassment

Whilst there is no strict definition of harassment in statute, sexual harassment is essentially unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature. It is about the abuse of power. The test is how the recipient feels about the behaviour and whether it creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for employment about which the individual could justifiably complain. Sexual harassment can take many forms:

  • comments about appearance, body or clothes
  • indecent remarks
  • questions or comments about your sex life
  • sexual innuendo and expletives
  • requests for sexual favours
  • sexual demands made by someone of the opposite sex, or by someone of your own sex
  • promises or threats concerning a person’s employment conditions in return for sexual favours
  • belittling or suggestive remarks
  • compromising invitations
  • displays of sexually suggestive or degrading pictures in the work place
  • inducement or attempting to induce or aiding and abetting another to commit an act of sexual harassment
  • any behaviour that makes the recipient feel viewed as a sexual object
  • looking or staring at a person’s body
  • display of sexually explicit material such as calendars, pin-ups or magazines
  • transmitted by electronic means, such as email
  • downloading and display of offensive materials onto computers in public areas
  • unnecessary and unwanted physical contact
  • physically touching, pinching, caressing, kissing or hugging
  • sexual assault
  • rape

Sexual assault and some forms of harassment can actually be criminal offences, in which case you could report them to the police. Your employer may also be liable if you have reported instances of harassment by a work colleague which the employer ignores or fails to act on.

Racial Harassment

Racial harassment is conduct based on race, colour, nationality or ethnicity, which is offensive to the recipient. Racial harassment can occur even if offence is not intended. Differences of attitude or culture and the misinterpretation of social signals can mean what is perceived as racial harassment by one person may not seem so to another. The defining features, however, are that the behaviour is:

  • based on colour, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origin
  • offensive or intimidating to the recipient unwanted by the recipient
  • the behaviour creates working conditions or an environment or some other form of detriment which the recipient finds unacceptable

Examples of the behaviour include:

  • derogatory name-calling or ridicule for cultural differences
  • verbal abuse ranging from belittling or suggestive remarks to threats
  • racist jokes
  • racist graffiti, images or insignia
  • display of racially offensive material or graffiti
  • references to an individual's skin colour
  • unnecessary comments or intrusive questioning about racial issues or racial origins
  • derogatory actions, statements, jokes, taunts or references to an individual's ethnic origin, customs, dress, diet, culture or religion
  • deliberate exclusion from social gatherings and events and normal social intercourse
  • refusing to work with an individual, allocating work unfairly or open hostility
  • insulting behaviour or gestures, physical threats or assault
  • downloading racist material onto computers in public areas
  • transmission of offensive material by electronic means, such as email

Disability Harassment

Harassment of a disabled person has the same defining features as sexual or racial harassment i.e., that the behaviour is offensive or intimidating, unwanted and has created an offensive environment for employment about which the individual could justifiably complain. The difference is that the treatment is based on or relates to a person having (or having had) a disability ie, a physical or mental impairment which has or had a substantial or long term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.

Harassment on the grounds of disability is more likely to occur through ignorance, lack of understanding or impatience than through a calculated abuse of power, however whatever the cause, it can undermine the dignity, self-confidence and career opportunities of people with disabilities. Examples of this type of harassment include:

  • offensive language, derogatory name-calling or 'sick' jokes
  • mockery, taunts or jibes regarding personal attributes
  • unwelcome discussion of the effects of a disability on an individual's personal life
  • refusal to work alongside a person
  • communicating with a person with a disability via a third party
  • excluding an individual with a disability from social events or meetings
  • uninvited, patronising or unnecessary assistance with duties
  • prejudging an individual's capabilities without reference to her/him
  • mischievous interference with personal aids or equipment
  • uninvited touching, invasion of personal space or privacy, physical abuse an intimidation

Harassment relating to sexuality

Harassment on the grounds of sexuality is usually of homosexuals, transsexuals or bisexuals, who may find it difficult to complain because they fear disclosure in an environment that they believe is negative or hostile towards them. Some examples of harassment on the grounds of sexuality are:

  • homophobic remarks or jokes
  • exclusion of transsexuals from institutional facilities
  • innuendo or gossip
  • expressing or acting on stereotypical assumptions
  • failure to accept the same-sex partners should be recognised in appropriate circumstances
  • threats of disclosing sexuality
  • exclusion from departmental activities/interaction
  • displaying or transmitting offensive material