{"id":7272,"date":"2019-10-07T10:13:13","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/?p=7272"},"modified":"2024-08-30T11:10:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T15:10:31","slug":"legal-definition-of-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/legal-definition-of-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Legal Definition of Harassment?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-7273\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/book-pages-bookcase-browse-415071-1024x606.jpg\" alt=\"legal definition of harassment\" width=\"1024\" height=\"606\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/book-pages-bookcase-browse-415071-1024x606.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/book-pages-bookcase-browse-415071-980x580.jpg 980w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/book-pages-bookcase-browse-415071-480x284.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/>Over the past few years, the term &#8220;harassment&#8221; has been prominent, especially when it comes to workplace behavior. In New York, employers must implement a <a href=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/resource-center\/checklist-and-guide-library\/new-york-sexual-harassment-prevention-resources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sexual harassment prevention training program<\/a> and have all staff trained by October 9, 2019. But one of the trickiest parts of identifying and discussing harassment is that the word means different things in different settings and to different people. People will often say they\u2019re being harassed when they\u2019re being pestered or bothered, and in everyday conversations, that\u2019s fine. At work, however, harassment has a specific legal meaning. We recommend that those in HR and management reserve the word\u00a0<em>harassment\u00a0<\/em>for conduct that meets the legal definition of harassment, which is:<\/p>\n<h2>Unwelcome conduct + Based on a protected class = Harassment<\/h2>\n<p>If conduct isn\u2019t both unwelcome and based on a protected class, then the offending employee isn\u2019t harassing. And (plot twist!) even if they are harassing, the conduct isn\u2019t necessarily unlawful. Harassment only becomes unlawful when tolerating it is a condition of continued employment, or it is so severe or pervasive that a reasonable person would find it hostile, intimidating, or abusive.<\/p>\n<h2>Harassment + (a) Condition of employment or (b) Severe or pervasive = Unlawful Harassment<\/h2>\n<p>Relatedly,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/how-to-handle-a-hostile-work-environment-complaint\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>hostile work environment<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>hostile workplace<\/em>\u00a0are actually legal terms of art that describe unlawful harassment of the second variety (severe or pervasive). And as with harassment, avoiding these phrases \u2013 and perhaps even the word\u00a0<em>hostile\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 when describing bad but not unlawful employment conditions will likely benefit everyone. If the equation is not complete, you may have an unpleasant workplace, an office fraught with tension, a boss who micromanages to death, or even an unmitigated circus, but you don\u2019t have a hostile work environment.<\/p>\n<p>Want an easy way to stay compliant with this New York&#8217;s sexual harassment regulations? Become a GTM client! We are offering our clients professionally produced, interactive online harassment prevention training videos that are both New York State and New York City compliant. The training has videos for both employees and managers\/supervisors, as required by the law. Both training videos are available in Spanish language versions. <a href=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/get-a-quote\/\">Request a free quote today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We recommend reserving the word\u00a0&#8220;harassment&#8221;\u00a0for conduct that meets the legal definition of harassment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[79,19,130],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-7272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-compliance","tag-human-resources","tag-sexual-harassment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7272"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7277,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7272\/revisions\/7277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7272"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=7272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}