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Sexual Harassment

Sometimes sexual or romantic interest in the workplace is one-sided. Although most people are willing to abandon their attraction once they realize it’s unrequited, some exploit their organizational power to pursue it. In some instances, sexual pursuit is merely a vehicle for abusively wielding power over others in the workplace. Consider the case of Leigh-Anne Goins, who took a job as an office manager before pursuing her dream of earning a graduate degree. Her job quickly became a nightmare, as she describes:⁴

For the first few months my job was wonderful. I was in charge of the office and I was making supervisory decisions. Then my boss’s true colors came out. He began coming up behind me and putting his hands on my shoulders, leaning in and talking into my ear. I thought, no . . . I’m imagining things. I should have bailed, but I had to pay my rent and I was trying to save money for school. The final straw came when I purchased some brownies and offered one to my boss in addition to my other coworkers. My boss said “no” because he was dieting. I offered one last time, just to be polite, and he responded by covering his mouth like he was going totell a secret and whispering so that only I could see and hear, “You’re my brownie” and licking his lips at me. That was the final straw, being called the office manager’s “brownie.”

Many people think the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace has been solved. It hasn’t. The number of incidences of sexual harassment since the early 1990s has actually climbed, with 11,364 charges of sexual harassment made in 2011 alone (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011). These charges represent only a small portion of actual instances, since the majority of sexual harassment incidents go unreported.

Although most people condemn sexual harassment in the workplace, enormous differences exist in perceptions of what constitutes harassment. The most commonly cited definition of sexual harassment is one created by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1980):

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or (3) such conduct has the intention or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

This definition suggests that two types of harassment occur in the workplace. The first is quid pro quo harassment—a person in a supervisory position asking for or demanding sexual favors in return for professional advancement or protection from layoffs or other undesirable events (Gerdes, 1999). Much more prevalent than quid pro quo, however, is hostile climate harassment (Tyner & Clinton, 2010). As Leigh-Anne Goins experienced, hostile climate harassment is sexual behavior intended to disrupt a person’s work performance.

Sexual harassment has a devastating effect. Victims of sexual harassment report feeling angry, afraid, and depressed (Cochran, Frazier, & Olson, 1997). Harassment victims are more likely than others to develop substance abuse and other health problems, including weight loss and sleep and stomach disorders (Clair, 1998). Not surprisingly, they also suffer a host of professional problems, including missed work, lower productivity, and ostracism by coworkers who blame them for inviting the harassment (Hickson, Grierson, & Linder, 1991).

The most common way of coping with sexual harassment is to avoid the harasser, ignore the harassment, or interpret the harassment in ways that minimize its seriousness—“It’s not a big enough deal to pursue,” “He was only flirting,” “That’s just the way things work here,” or “It was all a harmless joke” (Clair, 1993). Some workers confront the harasser, describing his or her actions as inappropriate or threatening or pursuing legal action. Confronting harassers is strongly encouraged as a matter of principle, but the practical consequences can be difficult to manage. In sexual harassment cases, people in the organization often side with the person in the position of authority (Fitzgerald, 1993).

If you are experiencing sexual harassment, remember that fewer than 5 percent of sexual-harassment victims report the problem to an authority (Fitzgerald, 1993). The decision not to report will likely perpetuate the harassment because it can teach harassers that their behavior is okay. The best long-term solution for addressing sexual harassment is to challenge it when it occurs and believe that the harassers deserve to be punished. If you’re not sure what to do, contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Go to www.eeoc.gov for detailed information on how to handle such situations, or you can call 1-800-669-4000.