Research Paper

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Sexual Harassment In The Workplace

Introduction

Sexual harassment is considered to be a form of sex discrimination that tends to violate the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964. In simple words, the term sexual harassment refers to the verbal or physical conduct, request for sexual favors, or unwelcome sexual advances. Title VII is a federal law that has been established with a sole purpose to prohibit the discrimination in employment on the basis of religion, origin, color, race, or sex. The aim of Title VII is to make sexual harassment totally illegal for retaliating against an individual. In the majority of the times, sexual harassment is covered in the workplace when it happens at work or any particular place where people carry out work-related functions (Fitzgerald et al., 2017). One thing that must be taken into consideration is that not only just women get sexually harassed at the workplace, but there men too who experience it.

Responding to Harassment

There is a high need for the involvement of managers or employees in all incidents of sexual harassment in a quick and appropriate way. The matter of fact is that just because someone is not objecting to inappropriate behavior in the workplace at the time, it cannot deny the fact that he/she is consenting to the behavior.

The Law

Title VII is a federal law that has been established with a sole purpose to prohibit the discrimination in employment on the basis of religion, origin, color, race, or sex. There are certain types of sexual harassment that may also be an offense under criminal law such as posts on social networking sites, text messages, e-mails, letters, and phone calls. In such a scenario, there is a high need for the employers to consider reporting the criminal offenses to the police.

Liability

One thing to be taken into consideration that a person who tends to harass another person sexually is liable for his/her behavior. The matter of fact is that the employers can also be held vicariously liable for the acts that may involve sexual harassments by their agents or employees. When it comes to sexual harassment at the workplace, there are a number of people who can be involved in such incidents such as clients, customers, volunteers, agents, contractors, managers, employees, and others that are connected with the workplace. Sexual harassment is a type of activity that can happen at any work-related event between the colleagues.

A Common Workplace

A workplace can be thought of any place which a person is seen to be attending to carry out his trade or work. The ones involved in the sexual harassment do not require to be an employee or an employer of the workplace. The best example in such a scenario would be of a person who is contracted by an employment agency for filling a short-term reception role. During that time, that person gets sexually harassed by the staff of the company.

Forms of Sexual Harassment

When it comes to sexual harassment at work, there are possible two forms. The first type of sexual harassment tends to occur when an employment benefit is implicitly conditioned on the submission for an unwelcoming sexual advance (Quick et al., 2017). On the other hand, the hostile environment harassment tends to occur when the work environment of a victim is made abusive or hostile as harassment's result.

How To Deal

Sexual harassment is on its way to becoming a common aspect of the workplace environment. The reason for that is quite simple that more and more cases of sexual harassment are seen nowadays, and the numbers are ever increasing. However, the current need is to stop this trend by coming up with possible ways. One step to follow from the very beginning is to behave in an unacceptable way whenever such issue comes into arising. The person facing such issue must demand to stop it in the first attempt (McDonald et al., 2016).

Another important thing to be taken in consideration is to write it down. A person who had been sexually harassed at the workplace is required to write down the details of harassment and try to look up for any witness. The reason for that is quite simple that it will help that person during interrogation from the police. It often happens that the harasses try to defend themselves against the claim of sexually harassing someone by attacking the job performance. In such a scenario, it has been required to gather copies of the personnel file with a sole purpose to keep evidence of job performance.

Human resources are considered to be one of the most effective role players in such a scenario. When it comes to the peer-to-peer sexual harassment, a person being sexually harassed requires to report the behavior to either the human resources or the supervisor. A person as soon as feels for being harassed, he/she must report immediately. The reason for that is quite simple that in such a scenario the employer must know regarding the conduct to be legally responsible to address the coworker. To inform the supervisor or the HR, the person can write a formal letter including the details of the events, and asking for a meeting.

How Employers Should Handle

The matter of fact is that an employer is obligated to address the claims of harassment effectively and professionally. There can be a number of steps to be taken in such situation by an employer. One of the most effective way in such a scenario would be the distribution of a written anti-harassment policy which tends to prohibit sexual harassment and assure that the employers will be conducting a fair investigation into the cases related to sexual harassment (Quick et al., 2017).

Supervisors are required to be given training over sexual harassment every two years. The most important thing to be taken into consideration is that the employers must take actions for investigating the claims within the 24 to 48 hours of the complaint. At that moment of time, the investigation must not be unbiased, but it should be progression for properly determining whether the claim is credible or not.

Conclusion

It is concluded that not only just women get sexually harassed at the workplace, but there men too who experience it. When it comes to sexual harassment at the workplace, there are a number of people who can be involved in such incidents such as clients, customers, volunteers, agents, contractors, managers, employees, and others that are connected with the workplace. The person facing sexual harassment must demand to stop it in the first attempt. Moreover, it is required by the victim write down the details of harassment and try to look up for any witness.

The matter of fact is that an employer is obligated to address the claims of harassment effectively and professionally. In such a scenario, the distribution of a written anti-harassment will be effective to prohibit sexual harassment and assure that the employers will be conducting a fair investigation into the cases related to sexual harassment. One thing to be taken into consideration is that most of the employees do not speak up when they face the issues of harassment. The reason for that is quite simple that such people are afraid to lose their jobs.

Work Cited

Fitzgerald, Louise F., and Lilia M. Cortina. "Sexual harassment in work organizations: a view from the twenty-first century." APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women. APA. Available at http://www. apa. org/pubs/books/4311534. aspx (2017).

McDonald, Paula, Sara Charlesworth, and Tina Graham. "Action or inaction: Bystander intervention in workplace sexual harassment." The International Journal of Human Resource Management 27.5 (2016): 548-566.

McLaughlin, Heather, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone. "The economic and career effects of sexual harassment on working women." Gender & Society 31.3 (2017): 333-358.

Quick, James Campbell, and M. McFadyen. "Sexual harassment: Have we made any progress?." Journal of occupational health psychology 22.3 (2017): 286.