Sexual Harassment Training Class: Understanding Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is broadly defined as conduct of a sexual nature, which involves but not limited to:

• Use of obscenities and or vulgar, sexual language
• Referring to an adult as a boy or girl or babe
• Whistling at someone, cat calls
• Making graphic or sexual comments about someone's body
• Turning work discussions to sexual topics
• Telling sexual jokes or stories
• Sexual innuendoes
• Asking about sexual fantasies, preferences or history or sex life
• Repeatedly asking someone out on a date who is not interested
From the above details, we can see that sexual harassment could be verbal, non-verbal or physical. Some common examples are:
• Giving a massage around the neck or shoulders - unwanted physical contact
• Touching a person's clothing, hair, or body
• Hugging, kissing, patting, or stroking
• Touching oneself sexually in front of another person
• Hanging around a person
• Standing close, too close, to a person
• Forwarding, sending or displaying suggestive or sexual e-mails
• Giving someone a suggestive or sexually explicit letter, note or invitation
• Passing Around sexually suggestive cartoons or jokes
• Textual harassment - sexting
• Unwanted love letters
• Sexually suggestive calendars, posters and reading materials openly displayed • Looking a person up and down (elevator eyes)
• Staring at someone else's body
• Blocking a person's path
• Following a person
• Giving personal gifts (particularly those of an intimate or sexual nature)
• Making suggestive expressions such as winking, throwing kisses, or licking lips

In a broad sense, there are three different types of harassment in the work environment. These are:

• Harassment by a supervisor
• Harassment by a co-worker
• Harassment by a non-employee/vendor

Outside the work environment such as at schools, neighborhoods, there are other harassment types such as:

• Harassment by teachers
• Harassment by fellow students/pupils
• Harassment by cultists
• Harassment by bullies at schools/neighborhoods
• Harassment by close relations such as uncles, nephews, nieces, aunties and cousins

When any of the three broad types of harassment take place in a work environment, the victim should immediately:

• Report to the human resources officer in charge any form of harassment by an employee observed or that is reported to you by another employee.
• If the harassment is by a vendor/non-employee, it must be tackled immediately to put a stop to it to protect the employee
• An employer including her managers, supervisors or others in responsible position is legally liable for knowledge of harassment it knows or should have known about
• If an employer or a harassed employee is in doubt, they should report to the human resources who would liaise with the legal department or adviser to handle the next steps
• Harassment by a supervisor is a serious form of harassment and should be treated as such

In non-work environment harassment such from fellow students and pupils, teachers, cultists, bullies at schools, neighborhoods and villages and relations, incidents should equally be reported immediately to appropriate authorities such as:

• Parents
• School Principal
• Local Police
• Legal counsel
• Counselors - Career/Guidance
• Other persons in authority

Here are a few behavioral guidelines regarding sexual harassment that could help:

• Do not assume friendliness is equal to romantic interest
• Don't assume your behavior is okay just because nobody objected to it
• Don't treat the office as a dating site where to pick where to date - a high percentage of office romance always end in problems
• If someone object's to your behavior, stop it immediately and don't do it again • If something you want to say or do may not be appropriate for a professional environment, do not say or do it.

Source: Francis Nmeribe link