Hardwood Floors August/September 2018

By Norma Zeitler BUSINESS BEST PRACTICES LEGAL Developing An Effective Anti-Harassment Policy

Before becoming a lawyer, I was a Captain in the U.S. Army. I was stationed overseas for much of my career and served a remote tour in a far-away land during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During that tour of duty, I learned many things. But the most important lesson I learned – as one of two female o cers on the base – was to speak up (and out) against sexual harassment. I have always been thankful that I was in a position where speaking up (and out) was OK. But that has not been the case for countless women (and some men) – many of whom are now speaking up (and out) a er many years of silence. Now that the court of public opinion has nally decided that sexual harassment is not OK – as evidenced by the public condemnation of the powerful men who have been accused of such conduct – it stands to reason that there will be an uptick in sexual harassment complaints in the workplace. us, a quick reminder on an employer’s obligations to prevent sexual harassment is in order. But before an employer can prevent sexual harassment, the employer must rst understand what it is. Sexual harassment is quite simply harassment based on sex. ere are two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo harassment and hostile work environment harassment. Quid pro quo harassment literally means “this for that” – if you have sex with me, I will promote you. Hostile work environment harassment is more subtle – it is any conduct that is (1) based on sex (or is of a sexual nature), (2) unwelcome, and (3) unreasonably interferes with the victim’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or o ensive work environment. e key to both quid pro quo harassment and hostile environment harassment is that the conduct must be unwelcome. In other words, conduct that is truly consensual is not unlawful harassment. But, what I can tell you from years of litigating this issue is that whether the conduct was welcome (or not) is almost always a hotly contested issue. us, in addition to understanding what sexual harassment is, it also is important to understand what duty an employer has to prevent unlawful harassment. Under applicable federal,

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