Differentiation of Concepts: Sexual Harassment, Harassment and Discrimination.

Delimitation of Sexual Harassment and Harassment

It is vital to distinguish the different faces of aggression in order to correctly typify and sanction them, as each has different implications according to global legal frameworks.

Sexual harassment refers to any unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors or verbal/physical conduct of a sexual nature.

It can manifest itself in two main forms: quid pro quo, where a job benefit is conditioned on a sexual favor, and hostile environment.

Consider a superior who insinuates to her subordinate that approval of her vacation is contingent on her accepting a romantic date.This is direct sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment creates an offensive environment based on a person's sex, such as sexist jokes.

Discrimination as Workplace Violence

Discrimination occurs when an employee is treated unfavorably or unequally because of universally protected characteristics such as race, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

Unlike harassment which seeks to actively harass or intimidate, discrimination seeks to exclude or deny opportunities based on ingrained biases.

A clear example would be denying a promotion to a skilled employee, not for lack of technical skills, but on the grounds that "because of her advanced age, she will not adapt to technology".

Here the violence lies in the denial of fundamental rights based on stereotypes, which affects the victim's dignity and professional career.

Mobbing or Workplace Harassment

Workplace harassment, technically known as Mobbing, differs from the previous ones in that it is not necessarily sexually motivated or discriminatory based on race or gender.

It is abusive conduct aimed at hindering the victim's performance, isolating him or her socially or forcing him or her to resign through constant psychological pressure.

It is characterized by acts such as withholding information necessary for the job, spreading malicious rumors about the victim's private life or assigning useless or impossible tasks.

While sexual harassment can be a serious single event, mobbing usually requires systematicity, recurrence and time to be configured as such.

Summary

It is vital to distinguish aggressions: sexual harassment involves unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, manifesting itself as an exchange of favors or the creation of a hostile environment.

Discrimination occurs when an employee is treated unequally because of protected characteristics such as gender or race, denying opportunities based on ingrained prejudices and stereotypes.

Mobbing is an abusive and systematic behavior aimed at hindering performance, socially isolating the victim and forcing his or her psychological resignation.