Is this considered harrassment?
There is someone at work that constantly tries to put me down at work, criticizes and makes fun of the way I lead my personal life. Often tells me to retire because "I have so much money." I'm not wealthy. I have already tried to put a stop to this, but he continues. Is this considered another form of harrassment? Any advice? thank you!
Public Comments
- Yes, it's harassment. It's your employers responsibility to make sure that kind of stuff doesn't happen. You should talk to them about it.
- yes, very much so. have you talked to your boss or someone else in charge? if they don't do anything, then document what is happening and contact a lawyer. that is totally wrong what they are doing...
- Yes. Tell this person that you have him before to stop talking to you like this and if he continues, you will go to Human Resources. Have a witness with you - document all of this - time, place, what was said, witness name(s). And follow through if he does. Then let HR take over.
- If it is impacting your productivity it should be mentioned to an upper level manager via a written document. Many people will just harp on others because they don't really know how to carry on a nice friendly work-appropriate conversation. There may be no ill will behind these comments. You will need to be the judge on that. I had this one employee that did this and we got sick of it. We all pooled our funds to buy him lunch if he could resist making negative comments to others until noon. We opened at 9AM and by about 10 oclock he had caught himself several times getting ready to lash out at others with negative comments. By about 10:30AM he began to quiver like a drug addict in withdrawal. He finally blurted out that he just couldn't take it anymore and it was not worth it to get a free lunch. He just couldn't help himself it had become so engrained in his life. We really felt sorry for him after we saw how his life was just so negative. If this person doing the abuse is your manager there could be some retribution after you complain. If they are a co-worker then it may be easier to get resolution. If the personal life comments that he is making are sexual in nature then it is clearly harassment. Anything less is probably going to be tough to prove as the individual will likely claim that these comments are made in jest and you are just hypersensitive. If you rock the boat it could mean you will work yourself into a situation where you will need to change jobs. So in a perfect world you should be protected. In the real world it is not so nice. There could be things that come back to bite you. My heart goes out to you because I can sense you are hurt by these comments. Best wishes in getting resolution. I work in an environment where we all get along very well and support each other. I wish that for you...
- If this nincompoop is 'above' you in the office hierarchy, report him/her to their supervisor. If he/she is 'below' you (or of equal rank) just ignore it as the nonsense it is. You could also begin a similar, low-level harassment campaign in return. There are many, many websites which offer excellent ideas for shenanigans-- but always pull them off in such a way that it looks like somebody else (you don't like) did them.
- I think it is a form of harassment. You have asked him to stop making those comments politely but he still continues. I would speak to your immediate supervisor in priviate ASAP. You do not deserve this unwarranted treatment by this co-worker!
