Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Know Your Rights

What is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment is defined as: Any type of unwelcome advances, favors or requests of a sexual nature, made either verbally or physically. By these acts a persons work performance is affected, and they no longer feel happy or comfortable in their immediate working environment.  

The victim or harasser can be either male or female and does not necessarily have to be the opposite sex to the victim. Sexual harassment can also be anyone affected by offensive behavior in the workplace, whether it was them being targeted by the offensive behavior or not.

What Types of Sexual Harassment Occur in the Workplace?

There are two types of sexual harassment in the work place:

• Quid pro quo sexual harassment: This is when a persons employment is decided upon, provided they agree to sexual favors and conduct as part of their job description.
• Hostile environment sexual harassment: This occurs when unwanted sexual advances are directed toward an employee, and this behavior interferes with their work performance. The harasser may be another employee, a supervisor, manager customer or client.

What Happens When Sexual Harassment Occurs?

In many cases the employer may be held accountable for any sexual harassment claims, even if he/she was not the harasser. If the employer knew, or should have known about the harassment and failed to do anything about it, then blame goes to the employer for not protecting the employee.

An employer is expected to know about a hostile environment, and act accordingly, to avoid being held accountable if:

• There has been a complaint,
• The management has not made a policy regarding Sexual harassment in the work place,
• Sexual harassment is openly practiced or well-known among employees.

What You Need to do if You are a Victim of Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a serious issue, laws have been put in place to protect anyone who is victim to this type of behavior, and should not under any circumstances be tolerated.

In addition, you need to give serious consideration to the possibility of hiring a lawyer to assist you in a sexual harassment claim.  There are a number of lawyers in most every community of any size that specialize in sexual harassment law.

If you are look for such a lawyer, you will want to make certain that you access the resources that are available to you on the Internet and World Wide Web.  There are now attorney directory and attorney search services in operation on the Internet and World Wide Web.  Through these services, you can identify those attorneys that can assist you in a claim of sexual harassment in the workplace.

These sites are very efficient and effective and can aid you in finding the most appropriate attorney to serve your legal needs in not time at all.