What is harassment?
Harassment is a type of discrimination. The same laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics (such as race, gender, religion and so on) also prohibit harassment on the basis of those characteristics. Harassment occurs when an employee or group of employees must endure a work environment that is hostile, offensive or intimidating to them because they have a protected characteristic. Harassing conduct includes things like: • epithets • mockery • demeaning jokes and cartoons, and • implied and explicit threats of violence.
