- Does going to work seem unbearable or cause extreme anxiety and stress?
- Is someone at work grabbing or touching you?
- Is a supervisor requesting sexual favors in exchange for a raise or promotion?
- Is someone at work making sexual innuendoes or comments to you, in emails, or via text messages?
- Are you experiencing poor or unfair treatment after ending a consensual relationship with your supervisor or manager?
- Do you frequently hear derogatory comments about women at your job?
If any of the examples above sound like your situation, you may be the victim of sexual harassment in the workplace.
What is Sexual Harassment?
Unwelcome, uninvited, undesirable, or offensive conduct can be sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct including:
- Sexual advances
- Requests for sexual favors
- Verbal or physical conduct or contact of a sexual nature
- Deliberate, repeated, and unsolicited gestures or comments of a sexual nature
- Deliberate and repeated display of offensive, sexually-graphic material not necessary for work purposes
What is unwelcome conduct?
Conduct is unwelcome when you do not solicit or invite it and it is viewed as undesirable or offensive. What might be acceptable behavior to your co-worker, could very well be uninvited and offensive to you. Unwelcome conduct in the workplace is unlawful and illegal.
Who Can Be the Harasser?
Everyone in the workplace. You can be sexually harassed by your boss or supervisor, a boss or supervisor in another department, a co-worker, or someone who is not even an employee, such as a supplier, client, or customer. Your harasser can be a woman or a man. It is illegal workplace sexual harassment if your harasser is the same gender or opposite gender.
A single instance of contact, grabbing, or touching constitutes sexual harassment. Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, though.
3 Types of Sexual Harassment in Wisconsin
1) Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment (this, for that) :
It is quid pro quo sexual harassment when employment decisions or expectations (e.g. if you are hired, terminated, promoted, demoted, which shift or tasks you’re assigned) are based on whether you grant or deny sexual favors or romantic relationships.
Examples of quid pro quo sexual harassment include:
- Demanding you perform sexual favors in order to receive a promotion or raise
- Disciplining, demoting, or firing you after ending a romantic or sexual relationship
- Changing work standards, shift assignments, or job duties after you repeatedly refuses to go on a date
2) Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment:
It is hostile work environment sexual harassment when unwelcome verbal or physical sexual conduct that is severe enough to interfere with your work performance or be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to a reasonable person.
3) Sexual Harassment Based on the Definition
It is sexual harassment if conduct falls into any 1 of the 5 categories outlined in the definition of sexual harassment, including:
- Sexual advances
- Requests for sexual favors
- Verbal or physical conduct or contact of a sexual nature
- Deliberate, repeated, and unsolicited gestures or comments of a sexual nature
- Deliberate and repeated display of offensive, sexually-graphic material not necessary for business purposes
Examples of a Hostile Work Environment – Verbal, Non-Verbal, & Physical
Verbal:
- Making comments about your body or sex life, or someone else’s
- Telling sexual jokes to you or within earshot of you
- Making sexually insulting, demeaning comments to you, or about you
Non-Verbal:
- Giving you sexually suggestive “gifts”
- Making sexual or lewd gestures, or staring at you
- Displaying or showing sexually suggestive or degrading materials
Physical:
- Blocking your movement or intended path
- Touching, hugging, kissing or patting anywhere on your body
- Brushing against your body
Retaliation for Reporting or Complaining About Sexual Harassment
Have you been terminated, demoted, disciplined, transferred, reassigned, or faced a similar situation because you reported sexual harassment, complained about sexual harassment to your manager or a supervisor, or participated in a co-workers sexual harassment complaint? You may be the victim of sexual harassment retaliation. Sexual harassment in the workplace is illegal in Wisconsin. So is employer retaliation because you stood up for yourself or a co-worker experiencing sexual harassment.
The Walcheske & Luzi, LLC Difference
At Walcheske & Luzi, LLC it is our pledge to provide open and honest advice, taking the time to listen, counsel, and advise. We will work closely with you to determine if you are the victim of sexual harassment. Tell us about your sexual harassment case, we’re ready to help.
Check out our testimonials section, where former clients have described their past experiences with us.