Harassment Prevention and Response (Civilian Focus)
The DoD will not tolerate or condone harassment, to include harassment that is not unlawful but adversely affects the work environment. Harassment jeopardizes combat readiness and mission accomplishment, weakens trust, and erodes organizational cohesion. Harassment is fundamentally at odds with the obligations of Service members and DoD civilian employees to treat others with dignity and respect.
Harassment can be oral, visual, written, physical, or electronic. Harassment can occur through electronic communications, including social media, other forms of communication, and in person. Harassing behavior may include, but is not limited to: unwanted physical contact, offensive jokes, epithets or name-calling, ridicule or mockery, insults or put-downs, displays of offensive objects or imagery, offensive non-verbal gestures, stereotyping, intimidating acts, veiled threats of violence, threatening or provoking remarks, racial or other slurs, derogatory remarks about a person’s accent or disability, or displays of racially offensive symbols.
Behavior that is unwelcome or offensive to a reasonable person and that interferes with work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment is prohibited. All allegations of harassment must be evaluated under the totality of the circumstances, to include an assessment of the nature of the conduct and the context in which the conduct occurred. In some circumstances, a single incident of harassing behavior is prohibited harassment whereas, in other circumstances, repeated or recurring harassing behavior may be required to constitute prohibited harassment.
Do you have all the tools you need to be effective? Review the video below to learn more.
► Harassment Prevention Tools Video (Awareness Overview)
► A General Look at Harassment Prevention and Response Video (Awareness Overview)