Only one instance of harassment is needed to identify it as harassment. The differences between bullying and harassment are that bullying is an ongoing problem. Harassment can happen repeatedly but it does not have to. Bullying always occurs more than once and many time very frequently. Harassment it also obvious and involves things that companies make very clear. Bullying can be much more subtle and the victim may not even realize they are being bullied until after it has been occurring regularly. The differences between bullying and harassment are that harassment victims are recognized and sympathized with, while bullying victims are often not recognized or dealt with in the appropriate manner.

Another one of the differences between bullying and harassment is that harassment is often done in the open and to boost the image of the person doing the harassment or prove to their peers that they are macho. These motives behind harassment are different than the motives behind bullying. Bullying usually occurs in private and is not publicly admitted. A workplace bully does not want other to know what they are doing and will deny that anything is going on at all. Adult bullies just want to damage their target enough so that they are not a threat anymore.

Harassment can take place both inside and outside of work while bullying occurs mostly in the workplace. Harassers often take pleasure in targeting others, while bullies do it to hide their own insecurities and to eliminate the threat they perceive in other people. There are many differences between bullying and harassment, which must be identified in order to differentiate between both types of injustices.