The Changing Face of Workplace Harassment

The best part about drinking, other than the opportunity to temporarily forget the incredible number of problems in your life, is the wonderfully politically incorrect/ridiculous conversations that usually accompany imbibing in America’s favorite beverage.  On any given night of boozing, topics normally untouched, such as the merits of shoplifting or the proper way to bludgeon a baby seal, all become as mundane as a 50-year marriage (or so I’m told).  Though sometimes these aimless conversation can lead to some very interesting observations.

Case in point, the other night a drunken buddy of mine was jokingly trying to figure on how best to mess with his co-workers without them actually knowing that he was doing it.  After another beer and careful convincing that leaving live barn animals in their cubicles wouldn’t be very subtle, he came to the conclusion that the best way would be via annoying text messages from a private line.

Now aside from the incredibly unethical and possibly illegal character of my buddy’s self-created predicament, I couldn’t help but notice how effective the tactic he suggested would be in bothering his co-workers.  Despite the fact that he was joking, in reality the nature of my friend’s solution highlights how much workplace harassment has changed due to technology and social evolution.

A recent Newsweek article suggests that the way people are harassed at work now has changed a lot from how they were decades ago.  For instance, in the case of sexual harassment the stereotypical view has always been that of a boss forcing an underling to have sex with him or be fired.  Nowadays this doesn’t happen so often.  The landscape has changed and harassment, whether sexual or otherwise, comes in many different forms and from some unexpected sources.

In many ways, harassment in the workplace is a lot more subtle now and does not necessarily have to happen at work.  Going back to my buddy for example, he just wanted to piss off his co-workers because he didn’t like them all too much.  The full extent of his plan (as he slurred out) was that he was going to bombard them with text messages from a private line all the time, at the office and out.

To some people this might just seem like a jerk being a jerk, but under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 such a practice could likely be considered harassment.  Just because the nuisance isn’t sexual in nature doesn’t necessarily preclude it from being harassment.  Furthermore sexual harassment itself has gotten a lot more subdued.  The Newsweek article suggests that more often than not sexual harassment in the modern work environment is more about one person asserting their dominance over a co-worker or subordinate rather than just someone trying to satisfy a sexual urge.

Anyway, the moral of this article, as they say, is that employment-related harassment can take many forms.  Threatening emails, annoying Facebook messages, calls at odd hours of the night from your officemates could all possibly be considered harassment.  Here are some helpful tips that might help you navigate through these tricky waters.  However, the basic rule seems to be that essentially anything you’re uncomfortable with that’s being done to you by an employer or fellow employee could be workplace harassment.

Remember, you don’t have to take it.