Types of Harassment in the workplace
Introduction
Workplace harassment is the mistreatment of people at their workplace, and one can feel discriminated against or bullied. This harassment always targets various groups of people, such as women, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Harassment at the workplace can cause physical, emotional, and phycological stress to an individual. Cyber harassment and hostile virtual environment harassment are harassments mostly experienced by most individuals at their workplaces. Cyber harassment is the bullying one goes through on the internet. This type of harassment is on the increase because of the growing technology, and one can be easily harassed in one way or another. It usually occurs when one posts personal information of another person, threats, or rumors online. Hostile virtual environment harassment is the harsh working environment individuals go through at their workplace, i.e., an environment that is not good or conducive to work in.
Cyber harassment can cause the victim of harassment to experience low self-esteem and depression. This can lead to health issues to an individual because your personal information has been exposed online and everyone can see (Cassino & Besen‐Cassino, 2019, p. 1224). When such harassments occur in an organization, it can experience low productivity because their rights to privacy are being violated, affecting them workwise. A disturbed mind cannot work well hence affecting the quality of work the victim is offering.
Hostile virtual environment harassment just like cyber harassment, affects the quality of work in an organization. When an organization or an employer doesn’t create a conducive environment for its workers, the quality of work will be compromised. Staff will feel harassed hence preventing them from properly performing their job. And these harassments not only lower productivity but also causes mental, emotional and physical damage to an individual.
Therefore when such harassment occurs in an organization ,for instance cyber harassment an employer should have a policy ,rules and regulations on cyber harassment and state the unacceptable behavior in their organization (Rainbird, 2000, p. 16).Cyber harassment policy should be among the many policies of an organization and all the employees should know their boundaries on matters concerning internet and social media platforms. Employers should monitor different online platforms like emails, skype of individuals reported to be harassing others after being informed that they are being monitored.
About hostile virtual environment harassment, the employer should state the Company’s rules, regulations and policies about harassment and discipline actions taken on individuals who are found harassing their fellow workmate (Rainbird, 2000, p. 14). Mostly this should be done during orientation of new staff so that they can be aware of their working relations with others. They can also include on their contract for everyone to sign and acknowledge the policy. Doing so will help every individual know what is expected of them at their workplace, therefore creating a conducive environment for everyone to work in.
Conclusion
Every organization should try and create a working environment for their employees so that they can minimize all sorts of harassment. By doing so they will experience high productivity therefore any form of harassment on an organization should not be tolerated at all and employers should make sure this all rules, regulations and policies are adhered to.
References
Cassino, D., & Besen‐Cassino, Y. (2019). Race, threat and workplace sexual harassment: The dynamics of harassment in the United States, 1997–2016. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(9), 1221-1240.
Rainbird, H. (2000). Training in the workplace and workplace learning: Introduction. Training in the Workplace, 1-17.