How to Identify and Report Harassment or Discrimination at Work
November 8, 2024
If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable at work, you’re not alone. Workplace harassment and discrimination can take many forms, some of which are subtle or hard to detect.
Workplace harassment can include:
Unwanted or inappropriate comments
Verbal threats
Unwanted physical touching
Menacing body language
Digital harassment or cyberbullying
Inappropriate favors or attention
But it can also include more nuanced interactions. Let’s take a closer look at how to tell if you’re experiencing inappropriate behavior or unfair treatment at work.
What is workplace harassment?
Certain behavior might make you uncomfortable, but you might not be sure if it falls under the category of harassment.
Let’s say your supervisor makes a homophobic or racist joke, and you’re offended.
Or, let’s say you’re experiencing clinical depression, and your manager makes comments suggesting that depression isn’t a “real thing”—you’re just being “lazy” and need to “cheer up.”
Do those situations count as harassment?
Yes, these are all unacceptable, and they’re considered harassment—provided one of a few conditions is true:
The situation is severe enough to create a hostile work environment
Going along with the joke without speaking up becomes a condition of employment
Speaking up results in an adverse employment decision
If putting up with homophobic jokes becomes a condition of keeping your job, it’s harassment. If your manager’s comments about your clinical depression are severe enough to create a hostile work environment where you can’t adequately or safely perform your job to the level required, it’s harassment. If that same scenario results in an adverse employment decision, where you’re demoted or given fewer shifts, it’s harassment.
What is workplace discrimination?
Workplace discrimination happens when someone is treated unfairly or differently because of their race, religion, gender, nationality, pregnancy, disability, age, sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics. Discrimination can happen in two key ways: through disparate treatment or disparate impact.
Disparate treatment is when someone is intentionally treated differently based on a protected characteristic. For example:
A manager doesn’t promote you because they think you might get pregnant soon
A qualified applicant doesn’t get hired because the hiring manager has biases against Muslims
You’re left out of a work lunch because a colleague disapproves of your sexual orientation
In each case, someone is singled out and treated unfairly because of who they are.
Disparate impact is less direct but still harmful. It occurs when a policy or rule, even if applied to everyone, negatively affects a certain group more than others. Examples include policies that:
Require employees to be six feet tall
Require fluency in English
Require work on Saturdays or evenings
If these rules aren’t essential for business operations, they could disproportionately impact people based on characteristics like gender, religion, or disability. Even if the policy seems neutral, its consequences can be discriminatory.
These are just a few examples of how discrimination can show up at work—whether it’s obvious or hidden behind seemingly “neutral” rules. (See our legal handbook for a deeper dive.)
What to do if you experience workplace harassment
If you believe you’ve been harassed or discriminated against at work, you have options. You can take several different steps, including:
Use your company’s reporting process: Call a hotline, use a web form, or talk to HR or your manager
Create an anonymous report using a tool such as Spot (here’s how Spot reporting works)
Address the offending person directly, if it feels safe to do so
Can I get fired for filing a report at work?
It’s illegal for an employer to retaliate against you for reporting misconduct. They’re required to investigate your concerns and take reasonable steps to address the issue.
There are many valid reasons to be wary of reporting through traditional channels. You might worry about bias or unfair treatment following the report. (It may be illegal, but, according to one 2003 study, 75% of people who spoke out about workplace mistreatment experienced some form of retaliation.) Or you might simply not want to talk to HR—or any other human at work—about an emotional or upsetting experience.
How to create a (free) anonymous report with Spot
Spot allows employees to document incidents of workplace harassment and discrimination, and then decide whether to submit the report to their company. Spot lets your company ask follow-up questions without revealing your identity.
Even if your company isn’t using Spot yet, you can use it for free to document what happened, keep a private report, and then edit and submit the report if you choose.
Spot’s bot will guide you through the process—take as much time as you need. No human will see what you discuss with Spot unless you submit a report, which you can do anonymously.
