Bullying and harassment have important differences. Bullying is confrontational and involves physical threats, while harassment is ongoing mental, sexual, or physical abuse. Legal remedies for bullying and harassment are different, and harassment violates civil rights with or without physical intimidation.
Many people may consider bullying and harassment to essentially cover the same territory as unwanted intimidation, but there are some important differences to consider. Workplace and school bullying can be primarily confrontational and involve physical threats and intimidation, while workplace or school harassment can be more of an ongoing series of mental, sexual, or physical abuse.
An office bully quite often confronts his victim directly, while an office harasser might use more passive aggressive methods to intimidate his target from afar. Bullying and harassment are both considered abusive behavior, but legal remedies for bullying are often different from those for harassment. Bullying is generally considered workplace violence, while harassment is often classified as workplace intimidation.
An office or school bully will quite often use his imposing physical presence as the main source of intimidation tactics. A victim of a bully may fear serious bodily harm if the bully’s demands are not met. An office or school abuser, on the other hand, may not be physically stronger or more imposing than his or her victim, but the victim may fear public ridicule or personal harm if his or her abuser’s demands are not met. A bully often relies on the victim’s fear of physical pain or an unwillingness to fight, while an abuser relies on the victim’s fear of embarrassment or public exposure. An office bully will confront his victim in the hallway, while an abuser may choose to make the victim the butt of cruel office jokes or relentless sexual innuendo.
A bully may actually be in a position of authority or seniority over his victims. A department manager or foreman might take advantage of his or her authority to force subordinate employees to perform demeaning tasks or to involuntarily accept unpopular shift assignments. A workplace bully often needs this leverage as a superior to keep his victim in a state of intimidation. A workplace harasser, on the other hand, may be a co-worker of the victim or even a subordinate. One difference between bullying and harassment is that harassment could take the form of unsolicited sexual advances, hurtful jokes, deliberate miscommunication, office small talk, or workplace sabotage.
Another major difference between bullying and harassment is how such incidents can be dealt with legally. An office bully who relays their behavior to actual physical contact with the victim can be arrested and charged with assault. A victim can document and report a bully’s threats to a trusted manager or human resources director, who can then take appropriate action to separate the bully from their work. Incidents of sexual or physical harassment that don’t involve actual violence, however, must be addressed through a different set of legal processes. The victim may need to submit a detailed report documenting specific incidents of workplace harassment. The alleged harasser may have an equal opportunity to address such claims in court or in arbitral proceedings. In essence, workplace bullying is harassment with an emphasis on physical intimidation, while workplace harassment violates the victim’s civil rights with or without the element of physical intimidation.
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