Harassment

Harassment refers to "The act of making others uncomfortable, harming others' dignity, giving disadvatages to others, or threatening others". The details are classified by the type of speech and behavior to others.

This article introduces five types of harassment that often occur in the workplace: power harassment, moral harassment, sexual harassment, maternity harassment, and alcohol harassment.

Power harassment

It refers to harassment beyond the scope of work by taking advantage of the position or power at work. It is generally called power harassment, and it has been featured in the news coverage recently.

These include the following four actions:

Use your position in the workplace to intentionally lower your staff's ratings
Continually bombard with violent language such as "I'll demote you."
Impose a task upon which it is clearly impossible to accomplish
Order a job of apparently low grade

In a survey of 4,580 companies conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in fiscal 2012, 45.2% said they received consultations on power harassment.

Moral harassment

It refers to giving mental violence in language and attitude. It's similar to the power harassment mentioned above, but the big difference is whether harrsers use their position in the workplace or not.

Therefore, there are some cases where a boss is molested by his/her subordinates. Also, because they do not use their position, they inevitably tend to be gloomy.

Specifically, the following actions apply:

When you are alone, you ignore people who talk to you
give a big sigh in conversation
to talk behind one's back

Sexual harassment

It refers to acts such as sexual threats. This type of harassment is primarily recognized that mojority of victims are female workers. But in some cases, male workers become victims.

These include the following actions:

bask in obscene language
persistently infer private information such as unmarried in a conversation.
Touch a part of the body

Even among same-sex people, there is a case that it is treated as sexual harassment due to the recognition of the receiver.

Maternity harassment

It refers to mental and physical harassment for pregnancy and delivery. There are also cases where men take it.

Specifically, the following actions apply:

prompt voluntary resignation or dismiss due to pregnancy or childbirth
order workers to work without setting a period for training after maternity leave
spurn words about pregnancy and childbirth

Suffering from stress, especially for pregnant women, can lead to miscarriages. Maternity harrasement is a very inhumane act.

Alcohol harassment

It refers to harassment at drinking parties. The National Citizens' Association for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drugs (Current ASK) defines alcohol harassment as:

compulsion to drink
the compulsion of gulping
intentionally make someone to drink until passing out
act of disregard for someone who cannot drink
a nuisance in a state of drunkenness

Especially, it is a vicious act to drink at a gulp because there is a risk of developing acute alcohol intoxication.

There are other forms of harassment in the workplace. In addition, these five types of harassment can occur outside the company. If you think you are a victim of harassment, you should consult with people around you, a consultation counter in the company, or a lawyer.

Summary

Harassment refers to the act of making others uncomfortable, harming other's dignity, giving disadvatage to others, or threatening others, regardless of harasser's intentions.
If you are harassed, you should consult with people around you, the internal consultation desk, or a lawyer as soon as possible.