Sexual harassment and its different shapes

Sexual Harassment is addressed in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  According to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), Title VII applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments and also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government.

http://www.eeoc.gov/types/sexual_harassment.html.

The EEOC defines Sexual Harassment as: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

The question is how much is too much and when should you take legal action? Clearly men and women co-exist in the workplace and it is difficult to tell sometimes when a joke, advance, or comment is taken too far. We now have issues where there are same-sex advances as well. I have heard stories where a female assistant was making unwanted advances on another female assistant. (Yes, I know for some men the thought of that is exciting and certainly has nothing to do with harassment).  One of the assistants ended up leaving for other reasons but the situation was still uncomfortable. However, because it was a “same-sex” situation, it seemed as if everyone thought it was “funny” rather than paying attention to what the person might have been going through.

The other shape of harassment though is when both people are attracted to each other. In one quick snap, comments that normally would be seen as “harassment” are actually welcomed and encouraged by the two people involved. There is such a fine line between harassment and a scenario where both people willingly engage in some type of flirtatious dynamic. I am all for some good natured flirting but you are better off keeping it out of the workplace. You never know when the situation could turn against you.

Sometimes people are reluctant to report any type of harassing activity, especially when other claims might be made. A situation was presented where a homosexual male was making unwanted advances to a heterosexual male. The comment was made that the reason why the heterosexual male didn’t like the advances being made was because he was homophobic. Typically that issue does not arise if there are unwanted comments being made by a male to a female or a female to a male.  In that type of scenario, one person might be fearful to bring up the harassing behavior because they do not want to be accused of being discriminatory toward someone else.  

I am definitely interested in hearing what types of situations people encounter in the workplace as there is certainly a tipping point as to when you have an actual sexual harassment claim. Sexual tension can exist in any scenario but sexual harassment is a serious issue. It is definitely the worst feeling to work somewhere where you feel like you never know when the next comment will be made. Always know you can talk to your human resources department as a starting place before escalating the situation into a full blown lawsuit.