Sexual harassment, along with any other harassment, should not be allowed in any workplace. An employer subject to federal anti-discrimination laws is bound to keep its workplace free from insult, intimidation, and mockery based on gender, religion, color, race, or national origin. An employer must also be concerned with preventing and stopping harassment, which could lead to legal issues.
An employer must monitor employee demeanor and behavior because any type of harassment present in the workplace affects employees’ productivity and might put an employer under legal scrutiny.
What is Harassment?
Harassment can be physical or verbal behavior that shows negativity or rudeness towards a person due to his skin color, religion, age, race, birthplace, disability, or for any other reason that:
- It has to do with creating an unfriendly, offensive, daunting working atmosphere.
- It has to do with creating an unpleasant environment for the employee(s).
- Puts a negative effect on the employment opportunities of a person.
Harassment can also be a negative behavior toward an individual’s privacy.
What Dedicates Sexual Harassment?
Unwanted sexual advances, demands for sexual favors, and different kinds of physical or verbal topics of a sexual nature give rise to sexual harassment when any one or more of the issues stands true:
- An individual feels dominated by the burden that if such demands are not fulfilled, it would be hard to keep up with the job or advance within the company.
- An individual thinks such conduct is the cause of promotions, demotions, and increments and is a requirement for the job.
- The approach or conduct affects an individual’s work performance or builds an offensive, hard-to-resist environment for an individual.
A few important points to keep in mind about sexual harassment include:
- Both males and females can be a victim of such conduct.
- A male or a female can also be the harasser. In some cases, the behavior can be from the same sex.
- The conduct is not necessarily taking place with the complainer. Any observed sexual harassment might be reported by a third party who was not involved in the original act.
- Such conduct can take place at workplaces, events sponsored by a company, or even between colleagues away from the working environment.
- The conduct can take place anywhere on the work site, and it has multiple situations to occur.
Common conditions that might include sexual harassment are:
- Pinups in the office: Pinups might be passed personally with sexual material that is liable for creating an unpleasant working environment. Do not let such things take place.
- Asking a colleague for a date: Such actions are not considered harassment, but if an individual refuses the offer, it can become one when continuous pressure is forced on the person to go on a date even after a complaint is made.
- Treating women rudely: A supervisor treating women unjustly or rudely and always putting women down or criticizing their ability to work can be guilty of offending women sexually as hostile actions are being taken based on the gender of the employee.
- Abusing verbally or through jokes: Passing statements about an individual’s appearance or jokes being passed down of a sexual nature can build harassment, especially when the individual does not appreciate such actions.
What is Gender-Based Harassment?
It is the employer’s job to ensure such actions are not being conducted in the workplace. Gender-based harassment is conducted based on the sex of the individual with no such sexual motives, maybe inter-gender or intra-gender, and can take both obvious and subtle forms.
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