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Sexual harassment in the workplace has been a serious problem for some time. Especially when we consider how many people are sexually harassed on the job and don’t report it to anyone, or even speak up about it.
It’s important that you know your rights if you were sexually harassed in your workplace so that you can be protected from retaliation and have a clear understanding of what is considered sexual harassment under both federal law and state laws. In this article, we will discuss how employers should handle these types of complaints as well as what legal protections employees have if they experience this type of behavior at work.
Sexual Harassment: What Is It And What Are Your Rights?
One of the most important things to understand is what sexual harassment actually means. It’s defined as “unwelcome verbal or physical conduct based on sex that explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating hostile or offensive working environment.”
It can involve making lewd comments about your body parts, touching you sexually without your consent (this includes groping and rape), sexually explicit pictures being passed around at work, threats toward someone who refuses a sexual advance from their superior are all examples of actions which have been deemed sexually harassing by federal courts in recent years.
If you are sexually harassed at work, then your employer is legally obligated to carry out abusive conduct prevention from further negative action or harassment that could happen as a result of standing up for yourself. If this does occur, the first step should be reporting it to someone in authority (usually your manager) so they can do something about it – if nothing happens after making this report there are other steps you can take but we will discuss those below.
How To Report Sexual Harassment At Work
It takes a strong person to come forward and report sexual harassment. However, if you are sexually harassed in your workplace it is important that you understand what steps of action should be taken so as not to jeopardize or further any harm for yourself or the other individuals involved.
Protecting Your Right In Case Of Sexual Harassment
If you are sexually harassed at your workplace and report it to HR or a superior, then there should be documentation that this occurred. If the situation gets worse after reporting (such as being fired for refusing sexual advances) then you can take legal action against your employer based on their failure to prevent further harm from happening because of their negligence in protecting you when they were aware of the sexually harassing behavior taking place.
A lot goes into making sure employees know what is considered sexually harassing behavior and how employers should handle these types of complaints but we hope this article has been helpful!
What To Do If You Are Sexually Harassed At Work?
One thing to do if you are sexually harassed on the job is, of course, to bring it up with your boss. If possible, try and keep a record or document of exactly what was said or done in case you need proof at any point during legal proceedings.
You may think this will be difficult because sexual harassment often takes place behind closed doors but there can also sometimes be witnesses around who see it happening too so don’t forget about that possibility either.
As uncomfortable as it might feel for some victims to talk about their experiences out loud, bringing them up with someone else helps prove that they really did happen which makes sexual harassment claims much more valid than when people go through these things alone without saying anything to anyone before taking action legally against their harasser.
How Can We Prevent This From Happening?
In order to prevent this from happening, companies need to implement a strict anti-harassment policy for their workplace. This includes not only sexual harassment but any form of harassing behavior like bullying too.
By having clear consequences set in place against those who violate this policy and following through on them by firing or suspending the perpetrator, victims will be more willing than ever before to come forward with these claims if they experience sexual harassment first hand because they’ll know that there are serious consequences for harassers now which makes it much less likely that innocent people will end up getting hurt as a result of false accusations made out of spite towards someone else.
Sexual harassment is never okay. If you’ve been harassed, it’s important to know that there are resources available for your protection and legal rights. You may have a sexual harassment claim against the employer if they knew about the misconduct but failed to take any action or otherwise discouraged reporting of the conduct. The best course of action in this situation is always to talk with an attorney who can provide guidance on what steps to take next.
Hopefully, this article has helped shed some light on how you can protect yourself from being sexually harassed at work by understanding your rights as an employee, knowing when it might be happening, and knowing what actions employers need to undertake so accidents don’t happen again.
