Verbal, Physical, and Visual Harassment

Visual harassment is a situation where the individual exposes themselves to another person without the victim's consent, and the act affects their work performance or attitude. Examples of visual harassment include:

• Exposing of private parts
• Sending sexual images or videos to another person. For instance, sending unsolicited pornographic videos to another person through a social website
• Unwelcome gestures towards another person
• Staring at someone else’s body offensively and making the person feel uncomfortable
• Placing a poster with information related to sexual behaviors
• Exposing someone else’s private pictures or images without their consent
• Displaying abusive or inappropriate messages or content from a website, book, or magazine

Physical harassment is an act where someone inappropriately touches you against your will. Physical harassment in the workplace is also known as workplace violence. Physical harassment behavior intimidates, embarrasses, threatens, and makes the victim uncomfortable. The most common forms related to physical harassment include:

• Sexual assault, abuse, or rape
• Inappropriately touching or grabbing someone, e.g. touching someone’s breast intentionally
• Using intimidating gestures
• Deliberately brushing or rubbing your body against someone
• Blocking another employee’s movements
• Kissing or hugging someone inappropriately
• Unwelcome touching of another person's hair, clothes, or body

Verbal harassment is a type of non-physical harassment that makes employees feel less comfortable, humiliated, threatened, or intimidated. Most of the time, people find it challenging to identify verbal harassment because of different reactions among other colleagues. The most common forms of verbal harassment include:

• Making inappropriate jokes, remarks, teasing, or asking sexually related questions
• Asking someone at work to go out with you, unwelcome sexual advances, and sexual favors
• Inquiring about the sexual preference or history of a colleague at the workplace
• Gossiping about someone and spreading lies about them
• Using abusive language and offensive name-calling
• Commenting negatively about a person’s clothing, body, or personal behavior
• Making inappropriate sounds such as kissing sounds, whistling, or smacking lips
• Sending someone sexual emails, notes, or letters
• Verbal attacks such as arguing with someone using threatening, discriminatory, or demeaning words
• Embarrassing someone in front of people, like an employer shouting and yelling at an employee over poor performance Please note that the law does not consider all verbal harassment forms illegal unless it appears unlawful under the rule of law. When verbal abuse is not illegal, the victim can talk to the abuser and explain how the words make them uncomfortable.