Question

Which is a characteristic of harassment?

Answer 1

Harassment is a form of discrimination and is a violation of law and policy. Harassment is defined as:

unwelcome verbal or physical conduct based on one’s membership in a protected category, as listed on the previous screen;
conduct when the submission or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment related decisions or actions; and
conduct that has the intent or effect of unreasonably interfering with one’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment (also known as a hostile work environment).
Petty slights, annoyances, and isolated incidents (unless extremely serious) do not rise to the level of prohibited harassment. To constitute harassment, the conduct must create a work environment that would be hostile or offensive to a reasonable person. Examples of behavior that may constitute harassment include:

racial or ethnic jokes or slurs;
pictures, objects, or graphic material containing offensive content;
threatening words or gestures directed at a person because of his or her membership in a protected class;
obscene, vulgar, or abusive language;
notes or e–mails containing slurs, jokes, or abusive language;
stalking (waiting for the employee in the parking lot; hanging out near an employee’s home); and
physical assault, such as twisting a co–worker’s arm, brushing a hand across their buttocks