Bullying & Harassment

Here at Ben we have a zero tolerance to any form of bullying and harassment via any means. It goes completely against our culture and values, and we won’t stand for it. It is important to note that communications that are on a non work-related digital channel aren’t excluded from this policy (e.g texting or whatsapp).

What is bullying & harassment?

Bullying is offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, and/or an abuse or misuse of power that is meant to undermine, humiliate or injure the person on the receiving end.

Harassment is unwanted conduct of any kind related to relevant protected characteristics (which are age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity) that

• has the purpose of violating a person's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person; or
• is reasonably considered by that person to have the effect of violating his/her dignity or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him/her, even if this effect was not intended by the person responsible for the conduct

A person’s behaviour may be considered to be harassment whether or not the person behaving in that way intends to offend. Something intended as a "joke" may offend another person, so please consider the impact of what you’re saying. Employees have the right to decide what behaviour is acceptable to them and to have their feelings respected by others.

A single incident can be harassment if it is sufficiently serious.

Examples of unacceptable behaviour include (but are not limited to):

• physical conduct ranging from unwelcome touching to serious assault
• unwelcome sexual advances
• sending emails with material of sexual nature
• demeaning comments about a person's appearance
• unwelcome jokes or comments of a sexual or racial nature, or about an individual's age, disability, sexual orientation or religion
• unwanted nicknames related to a person's age, race or disability
• the use of obscene gestures
• the open display of pictures or objects with sexual or racial overtones, even if not directed at any particular person
• spreading malicious rumours or insulting someone
• picking on an employee or setting them up to fail