If a boss assigns work that leads to excessive workload or delegates an unfamiliar task to asubordinate without any follow-up, it could potentially constitute power harassment. From “That’s Power Harassment, Isn’t It?” (Published by Diamond Inc.) © Koji Umezawa © Anju Wakabayashi Looking back over the past 15 years, the legal framework and concepts have not changed at all. However, there has been an increasing sense of crisis and aversion toward harassment in society… This is a feeling that remains strong on a personal level. “I’ve felt for about 10 years that people’s threshold for what they consider harassment has been lowering. There are many instances where I find myself wondering whether this would legally qualify as power harassment. In most cases, the victim and the perpetrator have different perceptions of the facts. It cannot be denied that victims tend to interpret things in an overly definitive manner or take them too seriously due to their feelings of disgust or fear towards the perpetrator. When victim feelings become stronger, they often lose the ability to see things from multiple perspectives.”