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Sexual harassment on Valentine's Day (Connect, Perform) Sexual harassment hurts both individuals and businesses

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Sexual harassment on Valentine's Day (Connect, Perform)

Sexual harassment hurts both individuals and businesses. Victims of harassment face both psychic and physical injuries, while organizations convicted of harassment can lose valuable employees and large amounts of money. ABM Industries, a building maintenance company, recently paid $5.8 million to settle a sexual harassment claim.

Here’s some important information about sexual harassment.

The law does not differentiate between genders when determining whether sexual harassment is present. Males, females, and, in some states, transgendered people can be accused or the victim of sexual harassment. Managers are expected to prevent sexual harassment by implementing policies against it and communicating those policies to everyone who works for the company. There are two types of sexual harassment cases:

Quid pro quo. Literally, quid pro quo means “this for that,” and it occurs when a person demands sexual favors in exchange for something good (that is, a promotion or a raise) or to prevent something bad (that is, a termination, a demotion, or a negative review). For quid pro quo harassment to occur, the harasser has to have legitimate power over the person being harassed. Typically, this means that a manager would ask for sexual favors from a subordinate, but the same could apply to professor–student, clergy–parishioner, and other relationships where power could come into play.

Hostile work environment. Hostile work environments occur when intentional, severe, and recurring actions interfere with an employee’s ability to perform his or her job. Harassment may be based on race, religion, disability, age, or sex. Power does not enter into judgments of hostile work environment. For example, it would be possible for an employee to create a hostile work environment for a supervisor. Regardless, the victim of such harassment must show that management knew about the problem, or should have known about the problem, yet did nothing to stop it.

When an employee comes to a manager with a complaint of sexual harassment, the manager should:

1.	Interview the employee to get all the details of the case. Enlist the assistance of Human Resources at this step, or at any of the succeeding steps, if necessary.
2.	Thoroughly investigate the complaint by talking with witnesses.
3.	Talk with the person accused of sexual harassment—preferably within 24 hours.
4.	When all the facts of the case have been heard, if sexual harassment is present, take immediate corrective action.