Sexual harassment at work

We spend a third of our life time at work and we all want to have a conducive place to work. A place of respect and dignity. Sexual harassment is real and can happen to any workplace, regardless if it's a small setup or a large multi-national organization.


What constitutes Sexual Harassment?
Here are some legal guidelines to help you decide:


1. Unwelcome Behavior
Even if a person was not forced to do something against his or her will, the sexual behavior of the offender may have been "unwelcomed." This does not necessarily mean that the person who is claiming he or she was harassed rejected sexual advances or directly chastised the harasser about his or her behavior. Courts will listen to testimony that shows that the person who was harassed indicated by his or her conduct that the advances were unwelcome.

2. Isolated Occurrences
Unless the conduct is extreme, a single instance or isolated incidents of offensive sexual conduct or remarks generally are not considered to be harassment. As a general rule, the less severe the behavior, the more you need to show a repetitive series of incidents.

3. Hostile Environment
Touching is not a required part of the definition of sexual harassment. Catcalls, leers, suggestive comments, explicit graffiti, or sexually explicit photographs could each be considered to be harassing if they created a hostile or offensive work environment.

4. Prior Romantic Involvement
The fact that co-workers have, or had at one time, a romantic relationship does not preclude a finding that one has harassed the other. Spurned lovers are as capable of sexual harassment as anyone else.

5. Ordinary Reasonable Woman
Some courts make a point of recognizing that women and men have different sensitivities. These courts have used women's standards to determine whether or not specific conduct meets the legal definition of sexual harassment. They say that what is disturbing to women may not be disturbing to men. Furthermore, even among women, standards vary.

As mentioned, all of us want to work in a conducive place of respect and with dignity. So the role of the management is very important in preventing such incidents from happening.




Feel free to share any thoughts, reactions, feelings, ideas or comments you have on this topic. Your participation will help each and everyone to increase self-awareness, new sensitivity to attitudes about the sexes, general impressions about the problem of sexual harassment both personally and professionally.


Original article by Ngee Key Chan