Harassment can take many different forms based on an individual’s position and the coworkers or supervisors who decide to harass them. Some workplace harassment involves multiple people targeting one individual. A hostile work environment often is mistreating one person based on one or more of their protected characteristics, such as their religion or their sex.
Harassment can also involve the abuse of authority by someone in a managerial, executive or ownership position.
How can workers identify quid pro quo harassment if it happens to them?
The purpose is to leverage career ambitions against a worker
The term quid pro quo essentially means something for something. In other words, the case involving quid pro quo sexual harassment involves some person promising workplace or career benefits in exchange for the sexual favors they attempt to solicit.
Quid pro quo sexual harassment can start small but can eventually have negative consequences for the person targeted, their career and their overall mental health. Workers who experience quit pro quo sexual harassment may lose out on career development opportunities and may experience social consequences of the harassment they endure at work.
Frequently, the party engaged in quid pro quo harassment is in a position of immediate authority over the person targeted. Their misconduct might involve offering specific rewards for acquiescing to inappropriate sexual demands. A supervisor might ask for certain favors in exchange for recommending a subordinate for a promotion or providing a positive performance review.
Occasionally, quid pro quo harassment can also involve threatening professional consequences for refusing to acquiesce to those requests. Performance reviews, annual pay adjustments and promotion opportunities should not rely on a worker agreeing to or at least overlooking the sexual misconduct of someone else at the company.
Quid pro quo sexual harassment can be difficult to prove, as most attempts at solicitation occur during a conversation (not in writing) and behind closed doors. Workers enduring sexual harassment may need help documenting their experiences and evaluating their options.
Reporting sexual harassment internally can sometimes lead to a company investigating and taking appropriate actions accordingly. Other times, companies may retaliate or may not intervene on behalf of a targeted employee, and instead protect the supervisor. In such scenarios, a sexual harassment lawsuit may be the only way to hold an employer accountable for allowing quid pro quo harassment to occur.
