"I'm just joking!" Well in today's business world it seems like you can't joke anymore. Sexual Harassment has risen to the forefront in most companies. The major problem seems that people do not even know what is and what is not sexual harassment. There does not seem to be a clear line on this issue. The genders seem to have separate views when it comes to sexual harassment. This page will describe what is sexual harassment, how to know when an incident is sexual harassment, under what circumstances can sexual harassment occur, and how to prevent this from happening in your workplace. It will also provide links to sample policies pertaining to sexual harassment, and to further information on this subject.
Sexual Harassment is, according to the EEOC, is "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature." It is only "sexual harassment 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 intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." Now what does this mean? We are going to try and breakdown this definition.
The first line states the word "unwelcome." How does anyone know what is unwelcome? A person will not know if it is unwelcome until after the fact. Of course, if action is crude or obscene we all know that this will be offensive, but it all depends on who a person is talking to. Some find actions or statements more offensive than the others. Next is the question of what are "sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature?" Is asking someone out on a date a sexual advance? It might be, but it usually depends on how the proposals were stated, but the EEOC says, "it is helpful for the victim to directly inform the harasser that the conduct is unwelcome and must stop." A segment in this line raises a question. It says it is "helpful" for the victim to tell the harasser that he or she is conducting a form of sexual harassment, but it is it not required?
Sexual harassers can be anybody. The victim or the harasser can be a man or a women, and the victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. There are cases which have occurred between the same sex. But harasser does not always have to work for the same company as the victim. There is such thing called third-party sexual harassment. This is harassment from outside sources, such as vendors, suppliers, customers, and everybody that encounters your employees. In addition, the victim does not always have to be the one being harassed. That sounds funny, but its true. For example, if a male is telling a sexual joke to other males and a women overhears it, the male telling the joke is guilty of sexual harassment.
There are several ways that a company can prevent this from happening to them. Firstly, companies should have in place a sound policy discussing what is sexual harassment and the repercussions of any sort of harassment. Secondly, they should communicate to their employees that this will not be tolerated. Third, they should have in place an effective complaint process and always should conduct an immediate and extensive investigation. And lastly, appropriate action should be taken towards the harasser immediately, if he or she is found guilty.
For more information on Sexual Harassment check out the following sites:
http://sabre.afit.af.mil/MARION/AAM-9502
This site is a sexual harassment manual for managers. It is a sample policy that may be used in a workplace.
http://discriminationattorney.com/harasswk.html
Attorneys advertising for your sexual harassment case. Here it is. This site is exactly that.
http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-sex.html
This is the home page of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It defines sexual harassment and suggest ways that it will occur in the workplace.
http://www.smsu.edu/admin/plan/xiii.html
This site contains guidelines on sex discrimination.
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/catalog/policies/sex.html
This site gives another sample policy. It is for a school district but it can easily converted for the
workplace.