Sometimes it starts with a subtle joke. Over time, it progresses to disrespect, and then humiliation and threats begin. Harassment in the workplace doesn't always come accompanied by shouting or cursing, which makes it so difficult to identify and prove.

Harassment can occur in moral or sexual contexts and is defined as the action of persistently bothering someone with statements, improper proposals, or stalking. It is an offensive and abusive behavior that intimidates and creates extreme discomfort for the victims, potentially causing damage to the image and reputation of the company and even harming the quality of life and mental health of the affected individuals.

According to the Public Ministry of Labor, in the last year, complaints of moral harassment in Brazil increased by 74%, while the number of reports of sexual harassment rose by more than 50%, primarily affecting women.

The vertical model of corporate relationships, adopted for centuries, seems to have favored the practice of harassment from leadership positions, as it presumed that they had the right to exercise hierarchical power indiscriminately, while the employee was to accept even the worst forms of treatment.

Although most cases involving bosses and employees suggest a downward movement, the opposite also happens. There are still many occurrences in horizontal relationships, that is, among peers of the same level, which does not diminish the seriousness of the action or the penalties.

Moral Harassment at Work

There are two characteristics that define harassment from a legal standpoint. The first refers to the repetition of occurrences over an extended period. When the harassment happens in isolation, it may only indicate moral damage.

The second characteristic is the intention to belittle the individual in the workplace and destabilize them psychologically. Here, the goal of the aggressor is to encourage victims to resign or motivate transfers, changes in position, and alterations in the work environment setup.

There is a Manual for the Prevention of Moral Harassment, made available online by the Superior Labor Court, which contains a detailed definition of attitudes considered forms of moral violence. Direct actions include accusations, insults, shouting, and public humiliations. Indirect actions are the spreading of rumors, isolation, refusal to communicate, gossip, and social exclusion.

Sexual Harassment

In relation to sexual harassment at work, it is common to confuse it with sexual nuisance. Harassment is classified as any conduct that causes embarrassment with a sexual connotation in the corporate environment, such as embarrassing proposals, insinuations, blackmail, and intimidation to gain sexual favors. From a legal perspective, the initiative must come from the hierarchical superior. Intimidation occurs when the harasser engages in actions that make the work environment hostile, intimidating, and humiliating for the victim.

A survey conducted in early 2020 by Think Eva in partnership with LinkedIn found that in Brazil, the actions most associated with sexual harassment are: requests for sexual favors (92%); unsolicited physical contact (91%); and sexual abuse (60%). 10% of the interviewed women did not know if they had experienced this type of violence at work, which shows that this harassment is still very complex to identify and needs to be clarified in organizational environments.

Harassment in Times of Remote Work

It is important to clarify that all forms of harassment can occur both in the physical workplace and in remote work, and when this happens repeatedly, it signals that the corporation is not caring for the well-being of its teams and is not hiring professionals aligned with good management practices, values, and organizational culture. Therefore, it can be held accountable for harassment or be considered complicit for remaining silent.

With the officialization of remote work in many organizations, a new dynamic between employers and employees has emerged, requiring a re-adjustment of some behaviors. Harassment against professionals working in a remote system can be considered when there is excessive surveillance to ensure that the employee is working all the time, when responses to emails or messages are demanded outside working hours, and when the limits of working hours are exceeded without due recompense or pay.

These practices keep the professional in a condition of being held hostage, pressuring them to always be on call, blurring the lines between rest periods and work hours. Therefore, it is crucial that leaders and managers are trained on how to manage remote employees.

What Are the Consequences for Companies and Employees

It is at least naïve to think that in harassment situations at work, the greatest loss is that of the employee. When a team member is affected, a kind of 'domino effect' begins, where one piece ends up knocking down all the others. Those who are harassed refrain from any participation in team actions. The person loses engagement and becomes unmotivated and unproductive, resulting in an accumulation of tasks for colleagues and a natural dissatisfaction on their part as well.

Over time, if the organization does not take action to mitigate harassment, it ends up losing talent, as directly or indirectly impacted employees end up resigning. This leads to increased costs due to turnover among professionals, not to mention the possibility of the company having to respond to labor lawsuits and suffering even greater financial losses.

For the worker, the heaviest consequences emerge, affecting both professional and personal aspects, impacting health and relationships. The employee suffers from loss of self-confidence, stress, panic syndrome, apathy, anxiety, depression, Burnout, and exhaustion. Harassment is capable of undermining all the joy and will to live for the employee and, in more severe cases, can lead to even graver consequences.

Thus, the company needs to always be attentive and investigate occurrences, support the victim, and take appropriate measures regarding the aggressor, according to current legislation. In fact, we already have laws in Brazil in effect since the beginning of the year, that require public and private bodies to have reporting channels and adopt mandatory training programs for leaders, managers, and employees.

In the case of the private sector, the CIPA – Internal Commission for Accident Prevention – gains a new role and must now also serve as a channel for receiving harassment complaints, thereby optimizing an already existing structure.

Prevention campaigns and training for HR and legal departments to address harassment, as well as the creation of channels to receive complaints related to any behavioral misconduct at work demonstrate that people management is changing within organizations.

How Governance Over Communication Inhibits Harassment in the Work Environment

In this scenario, Zapper contributes to the creation of harassment detection policies in companies by monitoring conversations via corporate WhatsApp. For this, words indicating sensitive conversations conducted in the messaging application are registered in the tool, and when this occurs, a notification is sent to the manager, who can access the content and evaluate the context of the conversation to validate it as harassment practice or not. The data is stored in the cloud, preserving individual and company information and preventing data leaks.

When the company's effort to comply with good governance practices combines with technology, it is possible to manage and value human capital and promote an environment prepared for innovation. Teams, vendors, and more secure customers also feel more confident and engaged, elevating the company to another level. Zapper wants to accompany and actively participate in the process.

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