Workplace hazard: harassment at work
Harassment is one of the most serious and pervasive sources of harm in the workplace. It causes significant harm to those who experience it, undermines trust and safety across teams, and creates legal and reputational risk for employers who fail to address it.
Despite increased awareness in recent years, harassment remains underreported and poorly managed in many workplaces.
What is workplace harassment?
Workplace harassment refers to unwanted conduct directed at a worker that has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment, or that unreasonably interferes with their ability to do their work.
It can take many forms. Verbal harassment includes offensive comments, insults, mockery, and unwanted personal remarks. Physical harassment includes unwanted touching, invasion of personal space, and physical intimidation. Visual harassment includes displaying offensive material. Digital harassment includes unwanted messages, emails, or conduct through online channels.
Harassment is often linked to a personal characteristic of the target. This includes their sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, or other attributes. When harassment is connected to these characteristics it is often also unlawful discrimination, carrying additional legal consequences for employers.
Sexual and gender-based harassment
Sexual and gender-based harassment warrants particular attention. It is among the most prevalent forms of workplace harassment and among the most harmful.
It includes unwanted sexual comments, jokes, or advances, requests for sexual advances, unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature, and conduct that demeans or humiliates someone based on their sex or gender. It can occur between any parties regardless of gender, and can come from colleagues, managers, clients, or others encountered through work.
Sexual harassment causes serious psychological harm and is frequently linked to post-traumatic stress, depression, and workers leaving their roles or their industries entirely.
How harassment causes harm
The harm caused by harassment is well documented. Targets of harassment experience elevated rates of anxiety, depression, burnout, and post-traumatic stress. The effects are compounded when harassment is ongoing, when the person responsible holds power over the target, or when reports are dismissed or mishandled.
Beyond the individual, harassment harms teams and workplaces. It creates cultures of fear and silence, reduces willingness to speak up, and drives talented people out of roles and industries where they face repeated mistreatment.
Why harassment goes unreported
The vast majority of workplace harassment is never formally reported. Workers who experience harassment often fear they will not be believed, worry about retaliation, feel ashamed, or doubt that the report will lead to meaningful change.
When the person responsible is a manager or holds significant influence, the barrier to reporting is even higher. Workers may have no clear path to raise the issue with someone who has both the ability and the willingness to act on it.
Anonymous reporting channels are particularly important here. They give workers a way to flag harassment without having to identify themselves, and they give employers visibility of problems that would otherwise remain hidden.
What employers can do
Preventing and addressing harassment requires sustained commitment, not just policy. Practical steps include:
Having a clear harassment policy that defines what harassment is, sets out how reports will be handled, and commits to protecting those who come forward. Ensuring multiple reporting pathways exist, including anonymous options. Training all workers, and particularly managers, to identify and respond to harassment. Taking all reports seriously, investigating promptly and fairly, and communicating outcomes to those affected. Creating a culture where bystanders feel empowered and supported to speak up when they witness harassment. Addressing the conditions that allow harassment to persist, including power imbalances, poor management, and cultures where certain conduct has been accepted.
The employer's responsibility
Employers are not only responsible for harassment committed by their own staff. In many jurisdictions they also have obligations in relation to harassment by clients, customers, and third parties that workers encounter through their role.
This means the responsibility extends beyond internal culture. It includes assessing and managing the risk of harassment from outside the workplace, particularly in roles where workers regularly interact with the public.
Why it matters
Harassment is not an interpersonal problem to be managed quietly between individuals. It is a workplace hazard with serious consequences that employers are responsible for preventing, identifying, and addressing.
Workplaces that take it seriously create environments where people can do their best work without fear. Those that do not face real costs in harm, turnover, legal liability, and the loss of trust that is very hard to rebuild.
