Quid Pro Quo Versus Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment

There are two types of Sexual Harassment - Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Environment. Both types are illegal in the workplace and both types require sexual harassment training to insure that your organization is not liable in a sexual harassment complaint.

Quid Pro Quo occurs when a manager or supervisor withholds or awards job benefits on the basis of sexual favors. Quid Pro Quo literally means "This for That” in Latin.

Examples of Quid Pro Quo Harassment:

A manager or supervisor offers/denies any of the following based on sexual favors:

• Positive work assignments
• Negative work assignments
• A hiring decision
• Threatens or carries through with termination
• Promotions or demotions
• Positive performance reviews
• Negative performance reviews

Every organization should stress a zero tolerance policy towards Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment and should encourage employees to report any instances to a higher ranking manager or human resources as soon as it occurs.

Hostile environment harassment occurs when the conduct unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. This type of harassment could include repeatedly asking for dates, leering, sexually suggestive whistling, sexual jokes, sexual pictures, sexting or texts, and sexually based emails. The behaviors needs to be continuous and unwanted and the employee should be encouraged to let the perpetrator of the harassment know that they are offended by the behavior.

Both forms of sexual harassment should be part of any harassment policy and every employee should go through a comprehensive sexual harassment training on a yearly basis to ensure compliance.

Ted Morgan is a writer and producer of sexual harassment videos for TrainingABC - a leading distributor of sexual harassment video and DVD programs.