Sexual harassment is often the punchline of the workplace joke. After all, how many of us have seen (and laughed along to) the episode of The Office where Michael and others have to undergo sexual harassment training from HR, and instead make sexual jokes about the woman in the video?
However, sexual harassment at work has serious legal consequences and isn’t a joke at all.
According to Federal law: “it is unlawful to harass a person (applicant or employee) because of that person’s sex (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Sexual harassment is defined by its impact, not its intent. The conduct must be unwelcome to be considered sexual harassment. It can include behavior such as:
- Unwelcome sexual advances
- Requests for sexual favors
- Verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature
- Sexually explicit jokes, emails, or texts
- Offensive objects or images.
Anyone of any age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity can be a victim or a harasser. The victim and the harasser can also be of the same sex, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity.”
This can result in business fines, personal fines, termination of employment, and even criminal legal charges if the incident rises to the level of sexual assault. Those criminal charges may include jail time and fines as well.