Quid pro quo and hostile work environments are the two main categories of sexual harassment claims recognized by the law. Quid pro quo harassment occurs when a person in a position of authority utilizes their position to make sexual demands in exchange for providing a benefit at work. Hostile work environment harassment involves unwelcome sexual activity that produces an oppressive or objectionable employment environment.
Both of them involve inappropriate sexual behavior. If one of these have happened to you, you have legal recourse. Depending on which of the two sorts of sexual harassment it is, you might be able to hold your employer accountable. Contact PLBH at (800) 435-7542 for a free legal consultation with an employment law attorney.
What is Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment?
When a working perk is made dependent on a sexual favor, this is known as quid pro quo sexual harassment. The connection between the workplace reward and the sexual favor can be either express or implied.
The workplace benefit, often known as a tangible employment action, can be any of the following: obtaining a job, a promotion, a pay increase, a preferred assignment, a sought transfer, a better work schedule, avoiding a demotion, remaining employed, or having disciplinary action dismissed.
Because supervisors are often the only ones who can offer these actions, quid pro quo sexual harassment nearly always includes a supervisor and a subordinate. Nonetheless, there are situations when coworkers will engage in sexual harassment as payment.
The sexual favor does not always have to be sexual intercourse. It can be any of the following: kissing, physical contact, touching intimate body parts, going on dates, or any other inappropriate sexual behavior. All that matters is that these are uninvited sexual advances.
Quid pro quo harassment is strongly supported by the fact that if you refuse the sexual advances, you will experience a real work consequence. Even if you turn down the advances and nothing happens, it could still result in a hostile workplace.
What Amounts to a Hostile Work Environment?
The other sort of sexual harassment is the establishment of a hostile work environment. In a workplace where sexual harassment is either severe or pervasive enough to produce the following conditions: aggressive, abusive, or offensive. Harassment may not require the behavior to be both severe and pervasive. It does, however, have to be both subjectively offensive to you personally and objectively offensive to a reasonable person.
The totality of the facts will determine whether the unwanted sexual behavior is severe or pervasive enough to qualify as harassment. This typically means that a jury will determine whether the actions constituted harassment. Some factors include whether it was physically threatening, how humiliating it was, how frequently it happened, how severe it was—from sexual jokes or innuendos to a sexual assault—and whether it affected the victim’s performance at work.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that having to put up with this unwanted behavior changes the terms of employment. According to Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the primary federal statute governing discrimination in the workplace, this qualifies as a form of sex discrimination.
A hostile work environment can be made by anyone. This includes supervisors, coworkers, clients, customers, onlookers, and vendors. Importantly, a victim of sexual harassment need not experience financial hardship or even necessarily psychological impairment.
Yet, not every inappropriate behavior leads to a hostile work environment. Sexually explicit isolated or mild events are insufficient to bring a claim.
If you have been the victim of sexual harassment at work and require the help of an employment law attorney, contact PLBH at (800) 435-7542 for a free legal consultation.