Three employees are gathered around a tablet, laughing at what is onscreen. An employee is crying while holding a computer keyboard.

Five Forms of Abusive Conduct

Abusive conduct can take many forms. For example, continuously insulting someone because they made a mistake is a form of verbal abuse. And sharing memes, photos, and drawings depicting a coworker in an offensive or distasteful manner is an example of nonverbal abuse.

Abusive conduct can occur inside the workplace in physical form, such as hitting someone or destroying property, or outside of the workplace in virtual form, such as making threats or teasing a coworker online (also known as cyber abuse).