Bullying and Sexual Harassment at Work Place

According to Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP), workplace bullying occurs when an individual or a group of people direct irrational actions repeatedly towards their fellow worker(or workers) in order to threaten, degrade, disgrace or demoralize them .


Sexual harassment, on the other hand, takes place when a worker makes repeated, unsolicited sexual gestures, demands for sexual favors, and other physical or oral conduct of sexual nature to a fellow worker. Incidences of workplace bullying and sexual harassment are prevalent in New Zealand.

According to a study done by Workplaces against Violence in Employment (WAVE), workplace bullying in New Zealand is three times more common than sexual pestering. The study also revealed that workplace bullying was a major contributor (48%) of workplace-related anxiety.

For example, when workplace bully emergency hotlines were set up by Auckland management consultancy Stratos in 2003, over 1000 telephone calls were received in the first three days of its operation .

Examples of Bullying and sexual harassment at the workplace



Bullying is not similar to antagonism. The former entails regular harassment against the person targeted, generating a constant pattern of behavior while the latter entails a single act. There are several examples of workplace bullying. They include social isolation, micro-managing, being assigned unreasonable deadlines, humiliation, being sworn or shouted at, being treated differently from other employees, and being criticized without valid reasons (SHARP 1).

There are also numerous examples of sexual harassment at work. These include: unsolicited gestures, jokes, derogative words and unwanted comments; constant demands for dates that are declined or unsolicited flirting; bodily contact for example stroking a fellow employee’s back, gripping the waist of an employee or obstructing his or her movement; exhibiting sexually evocative pictures, posters or objects; and playing sexually evocative songs (Heathfield 3).

The impact of bullying and sexual harassment at the workplace is significant. For example, the Corporate Leavers Study, done in 2007, reported that over two million workers resigned from their duties every year due to bullying and sexual harassment. As a result, the study reported that employers lose over $63 billion every year (Daniel 4). It is thus imperative that employers adopt policies to mitigate bullying and sexual harassment at the workplace.

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