3 Forms Of Workplace Harassment At Work

Occupational hazards must be reported and fought from the first sign, as it can have dire consequences on the affected person

Today there is bullying at home, bullying in the classroom and bullying at the workplace. The latter, perhaps not so well known, is the one that we will deal with today in our space to discover its various forms of manifestation.

Whenever we go to work in a company, what prevails is respect for colleagues, solidarity with the one next door and generosity.

However, when workplace harassment makes an appearance, we must not remain silent. This situation can create discomfort and terrible harm to the victim who experiences it.

Even if that coworker is not to your liking, you dislike him for any reason or you don’t have a feeling with each other, these are not reasons to start harassing him.

1. Descending workplace harassment

We start with the first type of harassment, a type of harassment that aims to harass the weakest, who is below your rank.

For example, a boss might harass his employees and this would be considered a top-down type of workplace harassment.

The boss is in a superior position and may want to exercise his power in this way.

In this type of harassment, the employee’s work is devalued, making him believe that he does everything wrong, that he is worthless, that he does not have the resources or sufficient skills for the position he is occupying.

              We recommend you read: The “subtle” abuse that you should not allow in your life

Typically, people who use top down harassment are hesitant to do so with an opponent who is at or above them.

They want to feel confident that they are going to win at this, and to do so, they attack weaker prey.

2. Horizontal workplace harassment

This second type of harassment already deals with equals, for example, between bosses or between employees there is psychological abuse that is not perceived by many.

Attitudes such as not interacting with the person who is being harassed, not inviting them to eat, to talk, to be included in a group of colleagues that has been created with the same interests, would be framed here.

Sometimes, at coffee time, the bullied person can see different groups in which the looks and non-verbal communication of the people indicate that they are not welcome in that group, that they do not even try.

The reason for this type of abuse is usually envy, jealousy, the power to make the “new” feel bad …

All this causes the harassed person not to find their place among others.

We recommend reading: “I can’t stand going to school”: Diego, 11, commits suicide due to bullying

3. Harassment at work

This last type of workplace harassment is the least frequent, since it is strange that someone who is in a lower rank can harass or make their boss feel bad, for example.

The easiest solution would be dismissal or another type of corrective  depending on the contract that you have at the time with the company.

Sometimes this type of workplace harassment is usually led by more than one person, since many more combatants are needed for someone in a higher position.

In this way, there have been cases of bosses whose self-esteem or insecurities have allowed them to be victims of terrible harassment by their workers.

In this case, the reputation of the person who supposedly had the greatest power plummets and causes his subordinates to stop viewing him with due respect.

As you have seen, harassment can occur in 3 ways, although the last one is only suitable for very self-confident people who do not fear imminent dismissal.

Undoubtedly, this psychological abuse should be eradicated as soon as someone complains about it or an action makes it clear that there could be harassment. Companies would have to be more prepared to deal with it.

However, even today it is not known how to eradicate this type of behavior that leads many people to take their own lives without regard. All this because his co-workers made him feel bad, miserable, inept.