Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE Sexual harassment is one of the biggest problems facing our businesses today. A week rarely goes by without a reminder of the pervasiveness of sexual harassment as a social problem. Sexual harassment is a growing problem in the government agencies and the corporations of the world; however, many corporations are now adopting new anti-harassment policies. Sexual harassment can be interpreted in many different ways. Although it does not have a “fixed” definition, it can generally be described as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidation, hostile or offensive work environment. ... In an effort to stop it, many laws have been passed in order to help fight sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can be broken down into two categories. The first type is called “quid pro quo” harassment. ... In the workplace, this form of harassment can occur when a person in authority, usually a supervisor, demands sexual favors of a subordinate as a condition of getting or keeping a job benefit. The second form of sexual harassment is called hostile environment. This occurs when one might feel inferior, intimidated, or offended because of sexual misconduct from another person. ... There must be three elements to constitute hostile environment sexual harassment. The actions must be sexual in nature, unwelcome or unwanted, and repeated. In the workplace, a hostile work environment arises when a co-worker or supervisor, engaging in unwelcome and inappropriate sexually based behavior. Sexual harassment includes touching, looks, comments, or gestures. A key part of sexual harassment is that it is one sided and unwanted. There is a great difference between sexual harassment and romance or friendship, since those are mutual feelings of two people.