One of the most annoying, and often illegal features of a toxic workplace is the illegitimate use of phone calls, voicemails, pages, emails, texts, you name it by passive aggressive jerks to attack others.

Obviously, calling someone at their home in any other circumstance than an emergency is completely off the hook, and a form of harassment. Yet at least three bad workplaces I've experienced had this going on. Some examples:

-the Sleazy Secretary at the Radio Station from Hell calling me at home saying that she'd heard a bunch of sirens and that I should get out and report on whatever breaking news might be happening. After hanging up on her, I called for a meeting. The spineless general manager, who was already playing footsie with her, asked if her actions weren't in the best interest of the station. I replied that I was a married man and didn't need someone with her reputation calling my house after hours. After that, I screened all calls.

-one assistant became angry at my boss in human services when I was picked to go to a media conference. Hey, I had only been in radio two decades at that point. He later told me that the day of the conference she paged him 53 times! I suggested that he find a new assistant. Of course, we later found out that the assistant that she knew of his various affairs....

-the same agency had a so-called "open door policy" for employee complaints. Unfortunately, this meant that junior employees and even part-timers were literally leaving multiple voicemails with vice presidents of the agency attacking one another in the pettiest ways possible. After being warned that these messages must stop, two employees decided to leave critical messages with the PRESIDENT of the agency. They were promptly removed, but still made a huge stink on the way out.

Interpersonal messages of employees need to be business only, and limited to only crucial and necessary purposes. Whether it's an email with an inappropriate subject or a harassing call or message, it needs to be addressed and dealt with from day one. If punching another employee means termination and prosecution, then it should be made clear that these behaviors are in the same class.