Introduction
Sexual harassment, a serious ‘disease,’ which has been ailing most companies today has become the talk of the town today on the various platforms of media. The recent concern of the vice has been to the continuous coming out of women claiming to have been sexually harassed in at their place of works. Some of the claims date back to over fifteen years ago. This has resulted in the highest number of research on the meaning of sexual harassment at workplace. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) describes sexual harassment as a constant sexual advancement or requesting for the same from a fellow employee or subordinate. The institution, EEOC, indicates that sometimes the acts of sexual harassment might not be physical; sometimes it can just be verbal. However, according to Tyner and Clinton (2010), sexual harassment is considered so only if such advancement is unwanted or rejected by the victim, such that interferes with the ability of the other party to work at his or her place of work. Tyler and Clinton the indicate that sexual harassment has for the longest time been found to be related to the performance of any worker; most workers performance reduce as a result of sexual harassment because the act results in a hostile environment making it had for the victims to even report to work, some also falsify sickness. Most of these acts aren’t reported because most Americans do not understand the law that governs sexual harassment, the various forms of sexual harassment and what steps to take.
It is important to note before proceeding that Sexual harassment in the United States Constitution is illegal and considered one form of violation of Civil rights. Sexual harassment is included in the Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts ad one form of mistreatment at the place of work. Most of the workers are not aware of this provision because it has not been discussed since 1964. However, some researchers indicate that the Americans are aware of sexual harassment as a violation of their civil rights at the workplace. According to Golshan (2017), the issue is the fact that workers at places of work are unaware of what entails sexual harassment. Golshan says that this has become the major stumbling block to reporting of sexual harassment cases today in the United States. For most of the cases that have been reported the victims have experienced some serious backlash because of the difficultness of proof. This has prevented most cases being reported because of the fear of rejection.
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EEOC describes forms of sexual harassment at the place of work. This they do to help the victims identify if they have been sexually harassed or not. Some of the forms of sexual harassment as described by EEOC include posting sexually suggestive pictures in the employees’ social media groups and emails. Constantly asking for dates and flirting with co-worker yet the party is uninterested. According to EEOC, playing some forms of sexually suggestive music or showing any form of videos can also be classified as sexual harassment. Physically, and the most considered epitome of sexual harassment is grabbing and groping the waist and private parts of a co-worker. This paper seeks to identify the different forms of sexual harassment as described from past cases in the courts, effects of sexual harassment on business, why most of the cases are not reported and three possible solutions.
Sexual Harassment and Law
Since time immemorial, sexual harassment has been known as just a violation of a person’s civil rights. In fact, until 1991, sexual harassment was just a vice. In a case of FSB v. Vinson of 1986, the courts described two types of sexual harassments. This brought in the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Perry, Kulik, and Bourhis (2004) say that the courts described two types of sexual harassments as Quid pro quo and hostile work environment sexual harassments.
The court described quid pro quo harassment as where the submission to the acts of sexual harassment is related to the decisions on employment. For instance, to increase salary, getting a job, or for promotion. Perry et al., (2004) says that this type of sexual harassment always involves sexual favors. Hostile work environment sexual harassment, on the other hand, are behaviors within the place of work that results in intimidation and sexual. Perry et al. (2004) indicate that these are sexual behaviors by either co-workers or the supervisors to their subordinates that result in low work performance. Apart from co-works, the mangers, and the supervisors, this form of sexual harassment sometimes is peddled by clients. However, it is crucial that as much as the court realizes and knows these types of sexual harassments since the 1990s the courts have been more receptive to the quid pro quo harassment cases more than hostile work environment ones because of they are easily proven. Quid pro quo sexual harassments are easily proven in courts because of physical proof. EEOC says that hostile work environment sexual harassments ado does not have substantial evidence to be judged on. The courts described hostile work environment harassments to seem as perception, unlike the quid pro quo ones.
Perry et al., (2004) says that courts are faced with the challenge of determining whether a conduct befits hostile work environment sexual harassment. However, the courts are obliged to use two approaches in determining whether sexual harassment is hostile work environment kind; subjective and objective approaches. The first step involves determining whether the act of sexual harassment was pervasive, a subjective approach. After that, it applies objective reasoning. The objective reasoning actually determines the act as hostile work environment sexual harassment. It is, however, important to indicate that for the longest time now the courts have always disregarded the fact that sexual harassment conduct causes psychological effects when applying the subjective reasoning. This is because they do believe that it is an obvious thing. An example of one case that expresses this argument, according to Perry et al., (2004), is the Harris against Forklift System, Inc. in 1993. In this case, the court rules that it was not necessary for the plaintiff to prove that the victim, Harris, had been affected psychologically. However, some defendants have in the past questioned the courts for assuming that every hostile work environment sexual harassment leads to psychological effects.
For the longest time, however, the courts have usually used the traditional language while acting on sexual harassment cases. This has not augured well with most activists citing the fact that most victims of sexual harassment are women. Legal scholars have in the past have claimed that psychological findings indicate that women and men perceive sexual harassment differently and therefore the language should be based on gender. The women and men standards have actually become a new way of deciding on cases in the courts on issues of sexual harassment at workplace. The use of woman standard language can be traced back in 1991 in the court case of Ellison against Brandy where the court based the case on woman standards. The use of gender-based standards has however been opposed by some researchers like Rotundo, Nguyen, and Sackett (2001). According to the three, gender is just but one among many factors that could be used to view sexual harassment at work place. Rotundo et al. indicate that the perception of gender is so minimal that it could not hold any substantial weight in courts.
Effects of Sexual harassment on Business
Research conducted by EEOC indicates that the most affect ted gender is the women. Women account for between 40% and 90% of the most affected gender in the sexual harassment issue at the workplace. This has affected many businesses as claimed by Tyner and Clinton (2010). According to the Labour Department of the United States, the reason as to why most business experience losses are because the affected women tend to prefer staying away from the environment work. They call in sick which consequently lowers their morale to work hence lower performance. Tyner et al. also indicates that business are forced into replacing the affected workers hence spending on training new ones. Sometimes the companies lose some of their best workers as a result of sexual harassment. Report presented by EEOC in 2013 indicate that companies are losing because of sexual harassment. Some of the figures presented by EEOC are; $25 million loss as a result of job turnover; $15 million due to sick leaves; $93 million loss due to reduction of individual workers; and approximately $194 million loss due to workgroups reductions in productivity. EEOC says that this has resulted in about half billion loss and continue to rise with 2017 being expected to be a billion.
Golshan (2017) says that companies today have formed a trend where they tend to push the cases of sexual harassment under the rug. They do to save their otherwise losing face and reputation most companies to also process the cases through confidential arbitration which in most cases are mandatory. The companies choose to do so because court cases are lagging and take lots of resources and time. In the end, the victim is forced into signing non disclosure agreement because of the fear of being the looser at the end. This happens despite the mental and physical impacts on the victims. According to Golshan, this is a trend that is on the rise and will continue to so as long as something is not done soon and fast. Research conducted by EEOC shows that companies today part with approximately $700 million through Commission Administrative enforcement pre-litigation with the aim of paying the victims and doing away with the cases. This trend of trying to silence the victims is becoming rampant preventing the fight against the vice. There is, therefore, need for serious solutions to the issue of sexual harassment at workplace.
Solutions to Sexual Harassment at workplace
Various approaches have been proposed to solve the rise of sexual harassment at workplace. However, three steps should be better and effective approaches to solve the sexual harassment issue at the workplaces. Firstly, the companies and employers must realized that sexual harassment has metamorphosed from just an act of indecency and violation of the worker's civil rights, but now a serious act that is leading to a loss to the business. It is high time the managers and the employers realize that both the men and women that work in companies deserve a place of work where they are respected. This is a culture that should be adopted by all the levels of management at the place of work. The issue of sexual harassment is currently a bottom-line issue as described earlier and leads to losses to the companies – cause job turnover, sick leaves, and individual and group productivity. It is imperative that the management realize the fact that sexual harassment cases are expensive and time-consuming and should be prevented at whatever level within organizations because it leads to tensions and job dissatisfactions. It is obvious is bad for business, the managers, and the companies and without accepting this, it will continue to do so.
Secondly, and the most important step in reducing sexual harassment at workplace is by the managers taking effective action. Despite the stiff sexual harassment policies that have been put by many companies across the United States, the conducts continue to be heard and expected to continue. It is therefore essential that the managers take action by themselves to solve the issue of sexual harassment at workplaces. The management must be committed to solving the issue of sexual harassment at their place of work and lead by example. Therefore, for a long time many managers have been going along with the act, and sometimes end up being involved in the vice. For the cases of sexual harassment at workplace to be solved, the courts might not be an issue; the managers must quickly take actions at their places of work.
Thirdly, revamping the training approaches at the workplace is vital in solving the sexual harassment cases. The current training in most of the workplaces has not taken a keen interest in the sexual harassment issues. Most employees, according to EEOC reports, are not trained on sexual harassment issues; they are given manuals on policies and pointed towards some information online about the issue. This has not been effective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, sexual harassment is becoming rampant at the place of works in the United States and therefore essential that the vice is stopped. Most of the cases are also not reported because of fear of loss of reputation or because the companies end up solving the cases with the victims and push everything under the rug. To solve the issue of sexual harassment is; however, not going to be the responsibility of the courts alone but also the companies and the managers. The managers must realize the negative effects of sexual harassment in their profits. The management must take serious actions apart from just formulating policies. Finally, training is paramount in solving the issues of sexual harassment.
References
Golshan, T. (2017). Study finds 75 percent of workplace harassment victims experienced retaliation when they spoke up . Vox . Retrieved 19 December 2017, from https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/15/16438750/weinstein-sexual-harassment-facts
Perry, E. L., Kulik, C. T., & Bourhis, A. C. (2004). The reasonable woman standard: effects on sexual harassment court decisions: Law and Human Behavior , 28 (1), 9.
Rotundo, M., Nguyen, D., & Sackett, P. R. (2001). A meta-analytic review of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 914–922.
Tyner, L. J., & Clinton, M. S. (2010). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Are Human Resource Professionals, Victims? Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications, and Conflict , 14 (1), 33.
