Workplace relations and work harassment have a relationship, it is necessary that every individual confine to professionalism and avoid any relationship that boils down to harassment in workplace or work harassment.
Ask a workaholic is his life at home different from life at work? Does he carry his moods and thoughts from work to home and home to work? Is his life black or white? I am sure he would respond with a grey. He definitely cannot switch his emotions and feelings off at work place. Everyone has different nature of work relations with the colleagues depending on various factors. Now the question is how can, these work relations turn into harassment relations in workplace.
When you cannot switch your emotions off at workplace you definitely take your frustrations out at work, those who are at a weak position have to suffer work harassment, and now this work harassment can simply be in term of assigning additional work to you. Or your boss just makes you do his part of work in your work’s salary then I would simply call it work harassment.
The romance, relationships and affairs should be kept separate from workplace; for the sake of professionalism any relationship at work place should be kept at a low profile. But it is a general practice that those in authority take advantage of less privileged and make them a target for harassment in workplace. It is a fact that harassment in workplace doesn’t necessarily have to be related to sexual harassment; it can be related to simple work relations, although in some cases it does derive down to sexual harassment in workplace.
To manage work relations or sexual relations with an employee and to avoid harassment in workplace along with work harassment we can follow some simple and easy rules which are; Be reasonable when you date or have a work relation with a colleague, define your limits and define yourself; how you want to be at work. In office environment no office staff can prohibit relations without a specific policy of the workplace. Besides that the main idea should be to have work relations that are not for work harassment, remember what professionalism demands, your behaviour at work has to be confined to business-related context only.