While all workers are now familiar with the term, few can define it clearly, let alone recognize its many possible manifestations. This is completely understandable when we know that even science has no single, entirely objective, precise and agreed upon definition by the entire research community that has studied it. Yet psychological harassment in the workplace can have serious consequences on the health and well-being of workers, as well as on the duration and stability of employment, and on job satisfaction. It can also impact the economy as a whole, leading to costs associated with absenteeism, lost productivity and job turnover, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent report (2018).
In broad terms, psychological harassment in professional life can be defined as behaviours, words or gestures which, repeated and systematized, can undermine rights, dignity, physical or mental integrity (often both) as well as the professional future of the person who becomes the target. According to Lamy (2000), psychological harassment differs from conflict by its asymmetric nature. In a conflict the reproaches are named and the conduct of the two disputing parties is centered on the very subject of the dispute to be resolved. In a situation of harassment, the conduct of one side is repetitively hostile to the other, and calls into question their dignity or integrity. This is rarely done in an open manner, which makes harassment difficult to prove to the employer who has a mandate to ensure a workplace free from all forms of harassment.
Amendments to the Act respecting labour standards came into force in 2004 in Quebec, introducing special protection for victims of psychological harassment, which states among other things, that it is the duty of the employers to ensure a work environment free from psychological harassment. The law defines psychological harassment as follows:
“Vexatious conduct manifested either by behaviour, words, actions or repeated gestures, which are hostile or unwanted, which attacks the dignity or the psychological or physical integrity of the employee and leads, for the latter, to a toxic workplace environment. A single serious conduct can also constitute psychological harassment if it causes such harm and produces a continuous harmful effect on the employee.” (Loi sur les normes du travail, LQ. 2002, c. 4, s. 81.18)
Almost twenty years later, we must admit, with statistics to back it up, that this legal measure has done nothing to stem the phenomenon. Data from the CNESST (Committee on Standards, Equity, and Occupational Health and Safety) show 342 psychological harassment cases opened in 2016; by 2019, that number had risen to 1,259, almost four times more! In addition, no specific and structured therapeutic intervention is available for victims of harassment who, depending on the severity of the incidents, may present symptoms such as (among others): anxiety, depression, digestive or sleep disorders, and even a form of post-traumatic shock.
It appears that the current approach in no way reduces the number of acts of harassment committed, nor does it immunize potential victims. What we have learned from the long months of the pandemic is the importance of early detection and the rapid implementation of barrier measures. This is what prevents an epidemic from becoming a pandemic, because this type of behaviour is just as opportunistic as a virus and can only take hold in the absence of knowledge (or recognition) of its mechanisms, thus that of the danger it poses.
Following the wise words of Benjamin Franklin “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, I am offering you a “vaccination against the H virus” that will be broken down into a series of articles dealing with different aspects of this growing phenomenon, which you may find useful for acquiring some personal and possibly, hopefully, collective immunity.
Christian Dame
Career counselor
Sources
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2018001/article/54982-fra.htm
Lamy, F. (2000). Comment contrer le harcèlement et la violence psychologique au travail. Options, no 19, CSQ, spring 2000.
http://legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/showdoc/cs/N-1.1?langCont=fr#ga:l_iv-gb:l_v_2-h1