Deep down most employees don’t need a lawyer to tell them that they are being harassed at work. Most employees know when they are being bullied, abused, touched inappropriately, humiliated, threatened, or ridiculed at work but many of them feel isolated, stigmatized, and powerless to hold those who have harassed them and their employers accountable. In a strict legal sense, workplace harassment has commonly been described in the following terms:
“Workplace harassment occurs when a person engages – intentionally or unintentionally – in a course of vexatious comment or conduct that he, she, or they knew or ought to have known would be found to be unwelcome and/or offensive to an employee. The affected employee may feel harassed for reasons related to their race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences, marital status, family status, or disability, or may feel harassed for reasons unrelated to any of those identities. Whether or not the affected employee’s experience constitutes unlawful workplace harassment depends upon whether or not the behaviour occurs within the context of the employment relationship and is assessed against an objective standard that asks what a reasonable person in that employee’s situation would perceive to be unwelcome or offensive.”