The Impact Of Sexual Harassment On The Workplace

Providing training about harassment has proven beneficial to the business environment. As the former EEOC Chairman stated “Sex harassment has developed as one of the great lessons in how education can have an effect on an offensive practice.” There are education campaigns educating not only employees but employers about what harassment entails, how to prevent it, and how to deal with a claim. (Glazer, 1996) In fact, most

Harassment has plagued the world for centuries. Why should the workplace be any different? Sexual harassment and workplace violence are not only of historical roots, but contemporary issues are still present in the workforce today. Managers are addressing and combating modern sexual harassment and workplace violence, however instances still occur (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2011).

Sexual harassment is always a legal topic in the work environment because the ramifications are so severe, but at the same time very abstract to describe what can constitute sexual harassment. This paper will take into consideration different elements of the law including Employment Law and cases tried before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will also offer suggestions for corrective action pertaining to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Harassment, specifically sexual harassment, is one of those challenges faced by businesses and employers as of a result of workplace diversification. Inappropriate conversations, unwanted advances and uncomfortable physical contact are some of the ways sexual harassment can occur. According to Hellriegel and Slocum, “Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” (p.52). To be clear, sexual harassment can, and has, affected both women and men over the years however up to half of all working women have reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in the career (Vijayasiri, 2008, p.1). It wasn’t until 1986 though that the Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII in the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (O’Brien, 1994, p. 1). Before the high court’s ruling, however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had begun to address the issue by drafting hostile work environment guidelines that included sexual harassment (O’Brien, 1994, p. 4). These guidelines would serve later to guide the high court’s decision. There are many more cases like this one we could look at. In 1991, sexual harassment became a household term as Anita Hill testified before congress stating she was sexually

Does the phrase “That’s what she said.” sound familiar? The phrase is from the popular hit television series The Office. The guy behind this popular quote is none other than Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott. This quote is not only inappropriate but it is also a form of sexual harassment and Michael Scott is the king of sexual harassment. Unfortunately sexual harassment is a problem that is occurring in the workplace. In another popular movie, Horrible Bosses, sexual harassment is one of the main points in the story. The best example of this is when Charlie Day’s boss, Jennifer Anniston, constantly makes sexual gestures and inappropriate statements at him. However, in The Office and Horrible Bosses, sexual harassment is taken to an extreme. What is unfortunate about sexual harassment is that most people do not realize that it is illegal in the workplace. However, it is possible that a few comments slip out every now and then but they should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately in these situations, there is nothing done to prevent it in the workplace, which I have decided to look into the problem of preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.

Work place policies regarding sexual harassment is the main issue discussed in this article. Sexual harassment has continued to be a challenge within the workplace. According to a recent review of sexual harassment related resolutions, employers have paid over $732,976.00 in sexual harassment fines (Hobson, Szostek, & Fitzgerald, 2015). The EEOC has issued written guidelines for appropriate strategies employers should use to handle workplace sexual harassment and specific ways to address it. It is the employer’s duty to proactively work to protect all employees from any type of sexual harassment by following sexual harassment policies and procedures that are put in place. Failure to implement and follow the policy and procedure in the workplace can and most likely will lead to liability should an EEOC investigation or lawsuit occur. The employer needs to disperse copies of the policies and procedures and post them in central locations throughout the organization and address sexual harassment in the employee handbooks. The policy and procedures need to clear

Sexual harassment in the workplace has become more common in today’s society and both men and women can be victims of sexual harassment in the workplace. “A study conducted showed that out of 20,000 employees surveyed, 42 percent of women and 15 percent of men responded that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment in the workplace” (York, 1989, p. 831). Also, most employee’s do not say anything about the harassment because he/ she feels ashamed or feels that the upper management will not believe his/ her story of the harassment, so many victims stay quiet until he/ she has had enough. Another reason why employees do not come forward when sexual harassment has occurred is because the employee is scared about how the employer will retaliate to his/ her harassment complaint. The EEOC has implemented several laws to protect the employees from discrimination, but these laws also protect the employees from retaliation. Retaliation can occur when an employer punishes an employee from participating in legally protected activity (Miles, Fleming, & McKinney, 2010). It is important to note some important cases in which involved sexual harassment and retaliation and how the ruling

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.

Since before my time, in the 1980’s, American court systems have already understood sexual harassment as a kind of sex discrimination. It is obvious that the legal development has drastically improved for the sake of all working women. However, Vicki Schultz, a Yale Law School professor, in her article “Rethinking Sexual Harassment,” criticizes how sexual harassment is considered at present. Schultz’s first critique to the matter, is that in focusing on sexuality, our approach to sexual harassment is much too narrow, and it overlooks the nonsexual forms of gender hostility that many women experience at work. Nonsexual forms of gender hostility include: condescendence of women’s performance or ability to master the job, providing patronizing forms of help in performing the job, or withholding the training, information, or opportunity to learn to do the job well. Second, Schultz argues that our approach to sexual harassment is also too broad because it targets even the harmless sexual conduct as harassment whether or not it discriminates against women. Such as, urging “zero-tolerance” policies and “cultural sensitivity” approaches that stumble onto the side of prohibiting sexual conduct that might personally be taken as offensive. Third, Corporate policies in particular, intend to include sexual harassment law, and have pushed the limits to completely disinfect the workplace so that

The #metoo movement has evolved how human resource departments view sexual harassment within their organization. The #metoo movement is shining a light on the harassment that women have faced in the workplace for years and have been hesitant to report (Jackson, 2018). Sexual harassment within an organization is becoming more and more common among companies. Section VII under EEOC states that sexual harassment, like racial discrimination and ethnic harassment is illegal and demeaning to employees (Bernardin, 2013). Sexual harassment section VII can be found in the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The response to the #metoo movement has to provide an extensive understanding of the laws that govern sexual harassment. Naturally, there are two types of

In our society sexual harassment has been in the workplace for years. The use of sexual harassment in the workplace has been remembered best as a weapon used to keep women in their place which would cause them to forfeit promotions within their organizations. It was once believed that women were the only victims but the shift is now changing men are also reporting that they are also victims of sexual harassment on the job. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and employers began to recognize that they were liable for two types of sexual harassment. The first kind of harassment is Quid pro quo when a supervisor offers the employee sexual advances in order to get or keep a job, and also this harassment is used to determined if an

There are many consequences to violators of workplace sexual harassment laws. It is up to the employer to exercise due care that their employees are not harassed. Sexual harassment has an impact on employers as well as its employees. When harassed workers lose concentration, when it interferes with their judgment, when they are difficult to motivate or tend to be late or absent, employers incur significant losses. In these circumstances, productivity may decrease, team work be jeopardized, and the risk of workplace accidents increase. Ultimately, employers may lose valuable workers, while others may be dissuaded from applying for vacancies.

As seen in the case study, a court decision may be one way for any company to legally define what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace, but there are many ways to define sexual harassment. Everyone has different views and tolerance levels towards sexual harassment. When a case of sexual harassment occurs in a workplace, however, it comes down to how the courts define sexual harassment. The Supreme Court defines sexual harassment to be unlawful in two ways. “The first type involves sexual harassment that results in a tangible employment action;” this is referred to as quid pro quo. For example, if an employee complies with the harasser’s request, then she will get a raise. This unlawful act is usually presented in the workplace by a person who has an upper hand, such as a manager, to ensure that s/he will get what s/he wants. Employees are often victimized by fear that they will not get promoted or that they will get fired. They also dread that if a complaint is filed, it will not be handled correctly. “This instance of sexual harassment always involves another violation of employee rights; [sic] wrongful termination.” This would occur, for instance, when “a supervisor . . . tells a subordinate that . . . she must be sexually cooperative with [him] or . . . she will be fired, and who then indeed does fire the subordinate for not submitting” (“U.S. Supreme Court Defines”). [schwinlaw.com]

In this research paper I would fully discuss what sexual harassment. I will start on the origin of sexual harassment and how it came into law. I will discuss what environment of sexual harassment looks like in the work place. The reader should be able to discover the different types of sexual harassment: Quid pro quo and Indirect. I will show you illustrated trends of sexual harassment in the work place over the years. I will discuss how sexual harassment affect both parties, meaning the employer and the employee. I will back up theses affects by laws that are set in place to protect the employee and hold the employer responsible. I will give an analysis on recent litigation involving sexual harassment in the workplace. In my conclusion I will give a recommendation on how to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and what management can to protect their employees.

Over the years, many people have believed that the issue of sexual harassment should not be discussed in public. Sexual harassment was to be discussed behind closed doors. In spite of this, the social and political systems have changed instantaneously. This social problem has affected men and women throughout time; however, it seems that the women of our society more closely look at this issue. This social topic has encouraged women to establish organizations in order to help them discuss the issues more openly and to demand equality including fairness and justice throughout the workplace and in their social lives as well. In recent years, sexual harassment has been one of the most serious and widespread problems