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dignity: harassment and discrimination
:
Tips and tools
Recognizing general harassment
General harassment is any unwelcome verbal
or physical behavior that unreasonably interferes with work or creates
an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.
2 General harassment can take many forms.
It can:
- include oral or written comments, gestures or physical actions which demean, belittle or cause public humiliation or embarrassment;
- be initiated by a peer, supervisor, subordinate or someone outside the Center;
- be directed at one person or a group of people;
- be linked to bias, when a group of people who share a characteristic (gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, etc) receive negative attention;
- occur at work or at job-related social functions.
3 General harassment can
consist of a single incident or repeated incidents. A single incident
can be considered harassment if it is so severe that it has a negative
impact on the individual or the work environment. Mildly offensive comments
and behavior can rise to the level of harassment if they are repeated.
Often general harassment starts out subtly and escalates if the behavior
is not stopped.
4 Examples of behaviors that constitute general
harassment include:
- public or private tirades by a supervisor, subordinate or peer;
- threatening or insulting oral or written comments;
- epithets, slurs or negative stereotyping directed at an individual or group, either directly or indirectly;
- malicious and false complaints of misconduct against other staff (innuendos, gossip and defamation can turn into harassment if not stopped);
- deliberate desecration of religious, racial, ethnic or national symbols;
- severe or repeated insults relating to personal or professional competence.
© CGIAR Gender & Diversity
Program 2006