WHAT IS HARASSMENT?
Harassment, as viewed in the context of your relationship with your employer, is conduct related to the individual's race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability or veteran status which has the purpose or effect of creating a hostile, intimidating or offensive work environment, or of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance.
Harassment can occur as the result of a single incident (almost never) or a pattern of behavior. Harassment encompasses a broad range of physical or verbal behavior that can include, but is not limited to, physical or mental abuse. This includes, without limitation, any form of racial slurs or insults relating to age, religious intimidation or racial epithets, sexual advances or harassment.
Unfortunately, not all rude, antisocial, harassing and intimidating behavior in the workplace violates legal rights that you have. If you feel that you have been unfairly discriminated against because of your sex, race or age then you should contact a lawyer to discuss your facts and the application of the law to them. Because gender discrimination is the single most frequently encountered employment misconduct that we see in our practice, we have singled out sexual harassment and treated it in the discussion that follows:
SEXUAL HARASSMENT: Sexual harassment, a form of gender discrimination, can take the form of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or other similar verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual or offensive nature, especially where submission to such conduct is
- expressed or implied as a condition of employment, or
- used as a factor in decisions affecting hiring, evaluation, promotion or other aspects of an individual's employment.
Sexual harassment may also include actions that interfere with an individual's work performance or create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.
Sexual harassment, like other forms of harassment, covers a broad range of conduct ranging from subtle forms of psychological pressure to physical abuse. Some examples of conduct, which could in certain circumstances constitute sexual harassment or contribute to an unlawful environment include the following:
- demanding sexual favors in exchange for favorable reviews, assignments, promotions continued employment or promises of the same;
- continued or repeated sexual jokes, language, epithets, flirtation, advances or propositions;
- verbal abuse of a sexual nature;
- graphic verbal commentary about an individual's body, sexual prowess or sexual deficiencies;
- sexually degrading or vulgar words to describe an individual
- leering, whistling, touching, pinching, brushing the body, assault, coerced sexual acts or suggestive, insulting or obscene comments or gestures
- the display in the workplace of sexually suggestive objects, pictures, posters or cartoons;
- name-calling, relating stories, gossip comments or jokes that may be derogatory toward a particular sex;
- the display of sexually suggestive graffiti;
- retaliation against employees for complaining about such behaviors;
- asking questions about sexual conduct, or sexual orientation or preferences, or
- harassment consistently targeted at only one sex, even if the content of the verbal abuse is not sexual.
So, as you can readily see, there may be a variety of facts and circumstances that require evaluation. The most important thing you can do is try to fix the problem yourself before you go see a lawyer. If you company has a clearly defined policy regarding sexual harassment, read it and follow it. It may get you the relief you want without courts and lawyers getting involved. and failure to follow policy and procedure may interfere with your case later on and result in your being treated harshly again by the courts.
If the person harassing you is the person that policy provides that you contact, then go to their superior for direction or contact your human resource department for direction. In small businesses, this may not be an option and you should contact an attorney with your concerns before your problem escalates to regrettable proportions.
It is very important that you tell the offender you are unhappy with the misconduct and that you document the occurrences of offensive behavior, potential eyewitnesses, dates, times, what was said or done and, in particular similar details of reporting the incidents to management.
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