What is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. Any conduct of a sexual nature that makes an employee uncomfortable has the potential to be sexual harassment.

You do not have to be any particular gender to experience sexual harassment. 

The definition is very broad and it is not surprising that sexual harassment comes in many forms. The following are all examples of sexual harassment: 

• A supervisor implies to an employee that the employee must sleep with him to keep a job.
• A sales clerk makes demeaning comments about female customers to his coworkers.
• An office manager in a law firm is made uncomfortable by lawyers who regularly tell sexually explicit jokes.
• A cashier at a store pinches and fondles a coworker against her will.
• A secretary's coworkers belittle her and refer to her by sexist or demeaning terms.
• Several employees post sexually explicit jokes on an office intranet bulletin board.
• An employee sends emails to coworkers that contain sexually explicit language and jokes. 

The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, manager, or coworker. An employer may even be liable for harassment by a nonemployee (such as a vendor or customer), depending on the circumstances.

If you feel that you have been sexually harassed you should seek the services of an employer right away.

What to do if you think you're being harassed based on a protected class?

Employees who believe that they are being harassed should report the harassment, in writing, to their superiors and to human resources. 

If your employer has an employee handbook, look for their reporting mechanism and follow it.

Employers will often seek to avoid liability for harassment because the employee did not use the readily available complaint process. You should document all complaints and any retaliation which follows any such complaints.

In California an employer is strictly liable for any harassment undertaken by a supervisor.  This means that they are deemed to have knowledge of the conduct of supervisors and they are liable automatically if the harassment can be proven. 

When it is a case of co-worker harassment, where one employee, not a supervisor, harasses another employee, the company must be notified of the harassment and have an opportunity to remedy the harassment before they can become liable. 

If the company knows, or should have known of the harassment, because it was so open and obvious, or done in the presence of a supervisor, then a formal report may not be required.