From the victim's point of view harassment can be extremely degrading and upsetting, create a disagreeable work environment and undermine job security. Harassment is an important issue. Employers can help to ensure it does not occur by adopting and publicising policy statements and procedures that make it clear that harassment will not be tolerated in the workplace. Harassment takes many forms, occurs in a variety of situations and may be directed against an individual or group of individuals. Harassment is a serious issue which lowers morale, affects personal dignity and interferes with employees job performance.
Harassment undermines any attempt to achieve equality for all employees in the workplace.
A key feature of harassment is the repetitive nature of the behaviour. The harassment can be on the grounds of a person's colour, race, creed, disability, age, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation or any other personal characteristic. It should be noted that racism and racial harassment is particularly pernicious since where ever it appears it adds an additional dynamic to other forms of discrimination such as disability, ageism, sexism, and sexual orientation. People with disability Undignified treatment, ridicule or exclusion of people because of their impairment, vulnerability, or actual or perceived disability. Young and old people can be discriminated against because of age, which means that this form of harassment has the potential to affect everyone at some time during their lives.