Sexual harassment in the workplace has been a consistent issue for decades. Although people are now more aware of on-the-job harassment, it still affects countless workers. Employees may experience a variety of different kinds of misconduct that affect their ability to do their job safely and possibly even their mental health.
Thankfully, both state and federal laws protect workers from sexual harassment and provide them with an opportunity to push back against inappropriate conduct in the workplace. To make use of those protective rules, workers have to be able to recognize sexual harassment when it happens. The three scenarios below account for the vast majority of all workplace sexual harassment situations that occur in workplaces in the U.S.
Customer harassment
Some companies brand themselves as customer-friendly and even advertise having flirtatious or attractive employees. Other times, those working in customer-facing positions may endure mistreatment because of people’s sense of entitlement. Servers at restaurants, customer service professionals and baristas are among those who may have to deal with customers making unwanted advances, touching them inappropriately or otherwise harassing them on the job. Employers should intervene when workers speak up about harassment coming from customers. If they fail to do so or punish workers for asserting themselves, the workers may need to consider taking legal action.
Quid pro quo harassment
If there’s one scenario that people visualize when contemplating sexual harassment, it is probably quid pro quo harassment. In a quid pro quo harassment scenario, someone in a position of authority tries to use their job-related power to solicit sexual or romantic favors. They may threaten reprisal if an employee declines their advances or may only offer opportunities to those who provide them with sexual favors. Quid pro quo harassment can force workers to choose between their sense of ethics and career opportunities.
Hostile work environments
There does not necessarily need to be an element of sexual attraction or flirtation for sexual harassment to occur. People who belong to the same sex and harass an individual by abusing them in the workplace. Members of the opposite sex may target and in the street one employee or a small group of employees on the basis of their sex. A few workplace jokes or mild bullying do not necessarily reach the level of a hostile work environment. Reasonable people generally have to agree that a worker had to endure untenable abuse as a condition of their employment for a situation to constitute a hostile work environment.
In scenarios where workplace misconduct has created an unhealthy environment, workers may need to report the matter. Filing a sexual harassment lawsuit may be an option when management plays an active role in the harassment or refuses to address the issue. Lawsuits are sometimes the only way to get companies to take allegations of sexual harassment seriously.
