Sexual Harassment: The difference between 'quid pro quo' and a hostile work environment trick question: Which one of these scenarios constitutes sexual harassment? Imagine a work environment where a woman is told, 'you're not going to get this promotion/raise/stay in your current place of employment unless you sleep with me,' by her boss. Essentially, she is told, quid pro quo, she must exchange sexual favors for potential job and financial advancement and security. Of course, this is sexual harassment. But, now, imagine a different workplace scenario. No quid pro quo offer is made to the employee in question. However, daily this employee is subject to sexual innuendos and jokes by her boss. Pamphlets with expressly sexual references and content 'find their ways' to her in box. It's all a joke, her boss says, when she asks him to stop with such verbal and paper material. 'Why is she being so uptight?' This behavior too, legally constitutes sexual harassment, in answer to the 'trick question'...
Although a quid pro quo scenario of harassment, such as the first detailed above, where a supervisor threatens to fire or not promote an employee if he or she doesn't have sex with the supervisor, a legal term that literally means "this for that," "what for what," or "something for something," may constitute the more easily proved scenario regarding sexual harassment in the workplace, creating a hostile work environment where an individual cannot do his or her job is also grounds for an allegation of sexual harassment.
Employees have more difficulty identifying this type of harassment and therefore it is more problematic to address (Icenogle, Eagle, Ahmad, & Hanks, 2002). It occurs where an employee endures catcalls and other comments about their manner of dress. If the comments are unwelcomed and incessant, the action of these employees becomes sexual harassment. Another example of this type of behavior also relates to the act of continuously asking a
Non-Discriminatory Workplace Environment To effectively deal with the problems of discrimination in the workforce, a workplace environment must strive to prevent discriminatory behavior from occurring between employees, must ensure that when discriminatory behavior does occur the participants involved in the conflict have a venue in which to express their differences and grievances, and finally, leaders in the workplace must make an effort to ensure that it doesn't occur in the
Sexual harassment can be legally defined as "verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, aimed at a particular person or group of people, especially in the workplace or in academic or other institutional settings, that is actionable, as in tort or under equal-opportunity statutes" ("sexual harassment," 2012). If a person in authority such as a boss, mentor, or official is found pressurizing a person holding an inferior position with
Sexual Harassment Should a person (employer or employees) be held liable for unintentional sexual harassment? If yes, under what circumstances? If no, under what circumstances? Give examples of particular cases that address both circumstances. Sexual harassment is defined as "any verbal or physical behavior with sexual connotations that brings discomfort or degrades the work environment, where the aggressor takes advantage of his or her position or repeated involvement to impose such behavior
individual with a communicable disease that is a disability is other wise qualified for the job? Individuals with disease can be judged for qualifications in the same way as any other individual applying for a job. Communicable or infectious diseases are considered to constitute a disability when the disease is impairing to such a degree that it "limits one or more major life activities" (Human Resources UNC). In these cases,
Today, it is not uncommon for managerial leadership to be drawn from one pool and placed in the other in order to facilitate greater intimacy between operational aspects separated by geography and culture. Though this strategy brings with it a number of notable benefits with regard to the coordination of global operations, it does also bear with it a number of challenges which fall upon the Human Resources department
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