Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment in the workplace. Whose job is it to take care of it? What are steps to stop it? What are the dirty little secrets that can keep it under the rug? Well first, what is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual Harassment according to the EEOC is “unwelcome sexual advancements, 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 interfered with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.” Well, now that we know what sexual harassment is here is an example.

There are two different types of sexual assault in the workplace, Quid Pro Quo, which is when a boss or fellow co worker demands sexual favors in return for things being done in the office, such as not firing, a raise, a new position, etc. Well a Hostile Work Environment is when someone threatens to do something such as sharing pictures or messages for not getting what they demand.

A female employee is at work, and grows tense when she sees her male boss. We must wonder why, well the female employee has just contacted the HR department on how her male boss  has made unwanted advances on her. Such as coming into her office and locking her in there and forcing himself upon her. Prior to that he had made comments about her body and how badly he wanted to do stuff to her. He first though, started off by greeting her every morning by telling her how nice she looked, and eying up her body from afar. This led to him cornering her in the break room and stealing a quick kiss and running his hand up her leg and butt. From there it just advances. This has now been going on for a couple of months and the female employee is now uncomfortable with coming to work, so before she quit she decided to get the problem resolved with the HR department.

Well the HR department must now report the male boss to the superiors, but also to the lawyers to have issues taken care of. This scenario is an example of Quid Pro Quo, because it is the forcing of sexual relations, when the female employee is not at fault of sending anything that could be shared. This is a responsible HR department that wants to do what is right to make the company look good, so they report these incidents and take care of them instead of just giving the female employee money and sending her away.

This scenario is the way that things should be done, but the thought of sexual harassment is scary, but it is very scary to think that I am going to be a female in the workplace, and my male coworkers and superiors may try to make advances on me and the HR department and superiors may not do anything about it.

Signing out

~ Liz

Resources:

Horowitz, Julia. “Here's How HR Is Supposed to Handle Sexual Harassment.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 10 Apr. 2017, 6:00, money.cnn.com/2017/04/10/pf/jobs/workplace-sexual-harassment/index.html.

“What Is Sexual Harassment?” Http://Employment.findlaw.com/, Findlaw, 2017, employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/sexual-harassment-what-is-it.html.