Determining proper word for a situation
I work at a call center. I said something somebody I work didn't like. I was working. They came behind me while working and just kept calling my name and would not leave me alone. I reported this to HR as harassment. HR told me this was not harassment. So, what is the proper word to describe a situation like this?
word-usage
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
I work at a call center. I said something somebody I work didn't like. I was working. They came behind me while working and just kept calling my name and would not leave me alone. I reported this to HR as harassment. HR told me this was not harassment. So, what is the proper word to describe a situation like this?
word-usage
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Cascabel is right. It may be that ‘harassment’ is covered by the company’s code of conduct, in which case you need to study it and decide if HR is taking a fair view of the situation. At all events the issue you raise sounds more to me like a legal or quasi-legal one than a matter of English language usage.
– Tuffy
1 hour ago
BPD--borderline personality disorder. That is my official former-CSR professional diagnosis. Good luck dealing with that somebody. (P.S. They really like it when you compliment their hair, clothing, shoes...or anything.)
– KannE
52 mins ago
add a comment |
I work at a call center. I said something somebody I work didn't like. I was working. They came behind me while working and just kept calling my name and would not leave me alone. I reported this to HR as harassment. HR told me this was not harassment. So, what is the proper word to describe a situation like this?
word-usage
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I work at a call center. I said something somebody I work didn't like. I was working. They came behind me while working and just kept calling my name and would not leave me alone. I reported this to HR as harassment. HR told me this was not harassment. So, what is the proper word to describe a situation like this?
word-usage
word-usage
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
asked 3 hours ago
Donna Samec-Ollis DavenportDonna Samec-Ollis Davenport
111
111
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Cascabel is right. It may be that ‘harassment’ is covered by the company’s code of conduct, in which case you need to study it and decide if HR is taking a fair view of the situation. At all events the issue you raise sounds more to me like a legal or quasi-legal one than a matter of English language usage.
– Tuffy
1 hour ago
BPD--borderline personality disorder. That is my official former-CSR professional diagnosis. Good luck dealing with that somebody. (P.S. They really like it when you compliment their hair, clothing, shoes...or anything.)
– KannE
52 mins ago
add a comment |
Cascabel is right. It may be that ‘harassment’ is covered by the company’s code of conduct, in which case you need to study it and decide if HR is taking a fair view of the situation. At all events the issue you raise sounds more to me like a legal or quasi-legal one than a matter of English language usage.
– Tuffy
1 hour ago
BPD--borderline personality disorder. That is my official former-CSR professional diagnosis. Good luck dealing with that somebody. (P.S. They really like it when you compliment their hair, clothing, shoes...or anything.)
– KannE
52 mins ago
Cascabel is right. It may be that ‘harassment’ is covered by the company’s code of conduct, in which case you need to study it and decide if HR is taking a fair view of the situation. At all events the issue you raise sounds more to me like a legal or quasi-legal one than a matter of English language usage.
– Tuffy
1 hour ago
Cascabel is right. It may be that ‘harassment’ is covered by the company’s code of conduct, in which case you need to study it and decide if HR is taking a fair view of the situation. At all events the issue you raise sounds more to me like a legal or quasi-legal one than a matter of English language usage.
– Tuffy
1 hour ago
BPD--borderline personality disorder. That is my official former-CSR professional diagnosis. Good luck dealing with that somebody. (P.S. They really like it when you compliment their hair, clothing, shoes...or anything.)
– KannE
52 mins ago
BPD--borderline personality disorder. That is my official former-CSR professional diagnosis. Good luck dealing with that somebody. (P.S. They really like it when you compliment their hair, clothing, shoes...or anything.)
– KannE
52 mins ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
I would call the behavior of your colleagues DISTURBANCE.
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disturbance:
disturbance
: the act of disturbing
: the state of being disturbed
// apologized for creating a disturbance
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
add a comment |
I believe that harassment is the correct word.
Here are two of the senses of the Merriam-Webster definition of harass:
1 b (1) : to annoy persistently
// was harassing his younger brother
1 b (2) : to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for
especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
// was being harassed by her classmates
// claims that the police were unfairly harassing him
From the description of a colleague standing behind you and constantly repeating your name, despite you saying you didn't like—and, presumably, being annoying in a persistent fashion, I would say it was a clear case of harassment based on the English definition of the word.
Having said that, however, the HR department at your company might have a different definition of the word they use as part of their own policies.
If so, a more accurate response could have been:
"We acknowledge that it was harassment in the commonly used sense of the word, but it's unfortunately not something we can act on. Per our policies, actionable harassment is defined as . . ."
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f483082%2fdetermining-proper-word-for-a-situation%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
I would call the behavior of your colleagues DISTURBANCE.
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disturbance:
disturbance
: the act of disturbing
: the state of being disturbed
// apologized for creating a disturbance
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
add a comment |
I would call the behavior of your colleagues DISTURBANCE.
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disturbance:
disturbance
: the act of disturbing
: the state of being disturbed
// apologized for creating a disturbance
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
add a comment |
I would call the behavior of your colleagues DISTURBANCE.
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disturbance:
disturbance
: the act of disturbing
: the state of being disturbed
// apologized for creating a disturbance
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
I would call the behavior of your colleagues DISTURBANCE.
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disturbance:
disturbance
: the act of disturbing
: the state of being disturbed
// apologized for creating a disturbance
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
answered 2 hours ago
user307254user307254
4,787516
4,787516
add a comment |
add a comment |
I believe that harassment is the correct word.
Here are two of the senses of the Merriam-Webster definition of harass:
1 b (1) : to annoy persistently
// was harassing his younger brother
1 b (2) : to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for
especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
// was being harassed by her classmates
// claims that the police were unfairly harassing him
From the description of a colleague standing behind you and constantly repeating your name, despite you saying you didn't like—and, presumably, being annoying in a persistent fashion, I would say it was a clear case of harassment based on the English definition of the word.
Having said that, however, the HR department at your company might have a different definition of the word they use as part of their own policies.
If so, a more accurate response could have been:
"We acknowledge that it was harassment in the commonly used sense of the word, but it's unfortunately not something we can act on. Per our policies, actionable harassment is defined as . . ."
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
add a comment |
I believe that harassment is the correct word.
Here are two of the senses of the Merriam-Webster definition of harass:
1 b (1) : to annoy persistently
// was harassing his younger brother
1 b (2) : to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for
especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
// was being harassed by her classmates
// claims that the police were unfairly harassing him
From the description of a colleague standing behind you and constantly repeating your name, despite you saying you didn't like—and, presumably, being annoying in a persistent fashion, I would say it was a clear case of harassment based on the English definition of the word.
Having said that, however, the HR department at your company might have a different definition of the word they use as part of their own policies.
If so, a more accurate response could have been:
"We acknowledge that it was harassment in the commonly used sense of the word, but it's unfortunately not something we can act on. Per our policies, actionable harassment is defined as . . ."
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
add a comment |
I believe that harassment is the correct word.
Here are two of the senses of the Merriam-Webster definition of harass:
1 b (1) : to annoy persistently
// was harassing his younger brother
1 b (2) : to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for
especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
// was being harassed by her classmates
// claims that the police were unfairly harassing him
From the description of a colleague standing behind you and constantly repeating your name, despite you saying you didn't like—and, presumably, being annoying in a persistent fashion, I would say it was a clear case of harassment based on the English definition of the word.
Having said that, however, the HR department at your company might have a different definition of the word they use as part of their own policies.
If so, a more accurate response could have been:
"We acknowledge that it was harassment in the commonly used sense of the word, but it's unfortunately not something we can act on. Per our policies, actionable harassment is defined as . . ."
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
I believe that harassment is the correct word.
Here are two of the senses of the Merriam-Webster definition of harass:
1 b (1) : to annoy persistently
// was harassing his younger brother
1 b (2) : to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for
especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
// was being harassed by her classmates
// claims that the police were unfairly harassing him
From the description of a colleague standing behind you and constantly repeating your name, despite you saying you didn't like—and, presumably, being annoying in a persistent fashion, I would say it was a clear case of harassment based on the English definition of the word.
Having said that, however, the HR department at your company might have a different definition of the word they use as part of their own policies.
If so, a more accurate response could have been:
"We acknowledge that it was harassment in the commonly used sense of the word, but it's unfortunately not something we can act on. Per our policies, actionable harassment is defined as . . ."
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
answered 2 hours ago
Jason BassfordJason Bassford
16.6k31942
16.6k31942
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
add a comment |
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
+1 agree with you
– lbf
36 mins ago
add a comment |
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Donna Samec-Ollis Davenport is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f483082%2fdetermining-proper-word-for-a-situation%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Cascabel is right. It may be that ‘harassment’ is covered by the company’s code of conduct, in which case you need to study it and decide if HR is taking a fair view of the situation. At all events the issue you raise sounds more to me like a legal or quasi-legal one than a matter of English language usage.
– Tuffy
1 hour ago
BPD--borderline personality disorder. That is my official former-CSR professional diagnosis. Good luck dealing with that somebody. (P.S. They really like it when you compliment their hair, clothing, shoes...or anything.)
– KannE
52 mins ago