Power harassment is harassment

Harassment

Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...

 or unwelcome attention of a political nature, often occurring in the environment of a workplace including hospitals, schools and universities. It includes a range of behavior from mild irritation and annoyances to serious abuses

Abuse

Abuse is the improper usage or treatment for a bad purpose, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, sexual assault, violation, rape, unjust practices; wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime, or otherwise...

 which can even involve forced activity beyond the boundaries of the job description. Power harassment is considered a form of illegal discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

 and is a form of political and psychological abuse

Psychological abuse

Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse or mental abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder...

, and bullying.

Origin of the Term

Although power harassment has occurred in many environments, it received wide publicity in the Japanese work environment, especially during the "economic animal" era. The term itself was coined by Okada Yasuko in 2002 and is used mainly in Japan. It is analogous to "abuse of authority" or rankism

Rankism

Rankism is "abusive, discriminatory, or exploitative behavior towards people because of their rank in a particular hierarchy".Rank-based abuse underlies many other phenomena such as bullying, racism, sexism, and homophobia. The term "rankism" was coined by physicist, educator, and citizen diplomat...

 in the workplace. Yuichiro Makiguchi is one of the researchers of power harassment at Tokoha Gakuen Junior College in Japan.

Example

Many workers are forced by their superiors

Superior (hierarchy)

In a hierarchy or tree structure of any kind, a superior is an individual or position at a higher level in the hierarchy than another , and thus closer to the apex. It is often used in business terminology to refer to people who are supervisors and in the military to people who are higher in the...

 to perform tasks outside of their job description and working hours. It is common for workers to be fired or suffer severe repercussions if they do not satisfy their superior's orders, despite there being no justifiable basis for such orders. Typical examples of power harassment include:

1. being scolded in front of other colleagues, rebuked in a loud voice
2. neglect
   Neglect
   Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for himself or herself, but fails to provide adequate care....
   
   
3. false evaluation and demotion.