Examples of Workplace Harassment: Types & Employee Rights (2026 Guide)

Introduction

Workplace harassment is not always easy to identify - and that is precisely what makes it so damaging. It rarely arrives as one single dramatic event. More often, it builds quietly through repeated comments, exclusion, intimidation, or unwanted contact that erodes a person's confidence and sense of safety at work.

The numbers tell a serious story. According to Statistics Canada's 2024 data, nearly half of Canadian women (47%) and three in ten men (31%) have reported experiencing harassment or sexual assault in the workplace at some point in their careers. Yet many of these incidents go unreported, and many workers never receive the protection they are legally entitled to. 

This guide exists to change that. Whether you are an employee trying to understand what counts as harassment, a manager working to build a safer team, or an HR professional reviewing your organization's policies - you will find clear answers, real examples, and practical steps here. We cover the most common types of workplace harassment, how Canadian law addresses them, and exactly what you can do if you or someone you know is affected.

Understanding workplace harassment is important — preventing it is even better. If you're an employee, supervisor, manager, or HR professional in Canada, our Other Courses teaches you how to identify risks early, respond appropriately, and create a safer workplace culture. 

What Are Workplace Harassment Examples?

Before exploring specific types, it is important to understand what workplace harassment actually looks like in practice. The Canada Labour Code defines workplace harassment as any conduct, comment, gesture, or contact - including of a sexual nature - that can reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation, or psychological or physical injury to an employee.

Critically, harassment does not require intent. A person may cause genuine harm without meaning to - and the law does not require proof of malicious intent for conduct to qualify as harassment.

Some of the most common workplace harassment examples in Canadian workplaces include:

• A supervisor making repeated personal comments about an employee's appearance or body

• A colleague consistently interrupting or speaking over a team member during meetings, often targeting the same individual

• A manager assigning the least desirable tasks exclusively to an employee from a particular cultural or ethnic background

• An employee receiving unwanted messages of a sexual nature from a coworker, inside or outside of work hours

• A team member being excluded from group lunches, communications, or social events in a deliberate and ongoing pattern

• An employee being threatened or intimidated when they raise a concern about workplace safety

These are not edge cases. They represent the everyday reality of discrimination and harassment for thousands of Canadians. To better understand which situations qualify legally, it helps to understand how Canadian law categorizes workplace harassment examples by type.

To get a clearer understanding of the broader definition first, you may want to read our detailed guide on What Is Workplace Harassment? Types, Examples & Employee Rights (2026 Guide)

Types of Workplace Harassment

Workplace harassment takes many different forms. Canadian human rights legislation and occupational health and safety regulations recognize several distinct categories, each with its own signs, examples, and legal implications.

Verbal Harassment

Verbal harassment is one of the most frequently reported forms, and according to Statistics Canada, it is the most common type of workplace harassment experienced by women in Canada. It involves the use of words - spoken or written - to demean, threaten, insult, or humiliate an employee.

Examples of verbal harassment include making offensive jokes targeting someone's race, religion, or gender; using derogatory nicknames; belittling someone's contributions in front of colleagues; making threats about job security to pressure compliance; and sending hostile or demeaning messages through workplace communication tools.

What makes verbal harassment particularly difficult to address is that individual incidents can seem minor in isolation. A single off-colour comment may not constitute harassment on its own. However, a pattern of such conduct - repeated over time and directed at the same person - almost certainly does.

Physical Harassment

Physical harassment involves any unwanted physical contact or physical acts that intimidate, threaten, or cause harm to an employee. It represents one of the most serious forms of workplace misconduct and, in many cases, also constitutes a criminal offence under Canadian law.

Examples include unwanted touching, grabbing, or blocking someone's movement; throwing objects in anger; physically intimidating someone by invading their personal space; and damaging an employee's personal property as an act of aggression.

It is important to note that physical harassment does not require injury to be unlawful. Any physical contact that a reasonable person would experience as threatening, unwelcome, or violating of their personal dignity can meet the legal threshold. This is an area where workplace violence and harassment overlap significantly - a distinction that Canadian law takes seriously under the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations.

Psychological Harassment

Psychological harassment - sometimes called workplace bullying - is perhaps the most underrecognized form, yet it carries serious consequences for employee mental health and wellbeing. It involves deliberate, repeated conduct that undermines a person's psychological integrity or their sense of dignity at work.

Examples include persistent criticism that goes beyond legitimate performance feedback; isolating an employee by giving them no meaningful work to do; setting unrealistic deadlines designed to ensure failure; spreading rumours or false information about a colleague; taking credit for someone else's work consistently; and gaslighting - denying that incidents occurred or telling an employee they are "too sensitive."

Research confirms the consequences are severe. According to the Canadian Labour Court survey cited by Canada Safety Training, 70% of workers who experienced harassment and violence had to miss work as a direct result of its adverse effects. Psychological harassment is frequently the driver behind those absences.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is defined under Canada's Labour Code as any conduct, comment, gesture, or contact of a sexual nature that is likely to cause offence or humiliation, or that may be perceived as placing a condition of a sexual nature on employment opportunities.

2024 data from Statistics Canada shows that 25% of women and 17% of men experienced sexual misconduct in their workplace in the preceding year - and that women are twice as likely as men to experience unwanted sexual behaviours at work.

Two distinct legal forms of sexual harassment exist in Canadian law:

Hostile work environment harassment involves conduct that creates an intimidating, offensive, or uncomfortable atmosphere - such as repeated sexual jokes, unsolicited comments about someone's body, or the display of sexually explicit material in shared spaces.

Quid pro quo harassment involves an abuse of power, where employment benefits - a promotion, a raise, continued employment - are made conditional on the employee accepting sexual advances or favors.

Both forms are unlawful under Canadian human rights legislation and carry serious consequences for employers who fail to address them.

Discriminatory Harassment

Discriminatory harassment occurs when an employee is targeted specifically because of a characteristic protected under Canadian human rights law - such as race, age, disability, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or family status.

This type of harassment is closely connected to the broader issue of workplace discrimination, but it has a harassment component: the conduct is not simply unequal treatment, it is active mistreatment targeted at the person because of who they are.

Examples include making racially charged comments or stereotypes in the workplace; excluding an employee from opportunities because of their religious observance schedule; repeatedly misgendering a transgender employee after being corrected; and assigning punishing workloads specifically to employees with disabilities.

2SLGBTQ+ workers in Canada are two to four times more likely to be targets of harassment or sexual assault in the workplace than their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts, according to Statistics Canada. This data point alone reveals how much work remains to be done in Canadian workplaces.

Common Signs of Workplace Harassment

Recognizing harassment requires awareness of both obvious and subtle patterns. These are the most consistent warning signs that what someone is experiencing may cross the legal threshold:

A pattern rather than a single incident - harassment is typically defined by repetition, not by one isolated act. An employee feels genuine dread about coming to work, often experiencing anxiety, insomnia, or physical stress symptoms tied to specific workplace relationships. Comments or conduct seem targeted at one person in ways that do not apply to others in similar roles. Requests to stop the behaviour are ignored or met with minimization. The employee begins to feel socially isolated - excluded from team communications, events, or decision-making processes they were previously included in.

Keeping a dated record of incidents, including who was present and what was said or done, is one of the most practical things any employee can do early. This documentation becomes critical if a formal complaint is ever filed.