Sexual harassment – so obvious we think we know what it means and is. But do we? Which of these myths have you or others in your workplace believed?
I never asked her for sex and so it wasn't sexual harassment.
Who said sexual harassment was about sex? Often, it's about power and one individual's desire to dominate another. Sexual harassment includes repeated insults, innuendos and touches that have little to do with romance. If you walk into a room intending to have a professional discussion and find yourself greeted by "hey, babe, I'm imagining you on your knees," you've offered not sex but humiliation.
She never said "stop" and so I didn't know
While victims have some responsibility for saying "stop," they don't have sole responsibility. Juries recognize that victims may be too intimidated to speak out and hold employers and managers responsible for noticing harassment.
He's a good guy; he couldn't have done what she said
Good people do bad and stupid things, including harassment. A personable, high-achieving manager may suffer from a fatal flaw that leads him or her to misbehave.
It's easy/impossible to prove.
We've all heard the expression that a story is just "he said/she said." Except it's not. After conducting several thousand investigations I can tell you it's generally possible to say "harassment probably occurred" – or didn't.
Unlike criminal court, in which guilt must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, or the court of public opinionm in which innocence needs to be proven or guilt may be assumed, sexual harassment case decisions rest on the basis of a preponderance of the evidence. When all the facts are presented, what will twelve reasonable people, the jury, conclude?
He insists he didn't harass her. She claims he did.
You've probably met two individuals who can't tell you whether harassment occurred or didn't – the too thin-skinned and the totally clueless. According to those thin-skinned, even sideways looks register 6.4 on a sensitivity Richter scale. According to the clueless, no one should be offended unless they "meant it" or managed the difficult feat of offending themselves.
Ultimately, in a sexual harassment case 12 jurors render a verdict. Thus, 12 jurors told a woman to lighten up when she sued after her co-worker watched a "Seinfeld" episode and the next morning repeated a joke about the name "Dolores" rhyming with a part of the female anatomy.
Jurors similarly surprised the construction crew members who thought it funny when they wrote their female co-workers' names in the snow when relieving themselves. "Just a guy thing" said the construction crew's management. "Gross, sexually-laden harassment," declared the jurors.
It's no big deal
If you harass and a jury finds you guilty, you'll pay an average of $50,000 in damages to your victim. Your company may pay hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars because they didn't stop you in time. Additionally, you and your company may spend thousands of hours with and thousands of dollars on attorneys.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Not true. About 50 percent of sexual harassment investigations result in a finding of "no harassment."
Don't bluff if falsely accused
The best defense isn't a good offense, nor is a blanket denial. Good investigators ferret out the truth. If you try to bluff your way through or make yourself appear better behaved than you are, you weaken your credibility and shoot yourself in the foot.
If a co-worker accuses you of harassment, stop and think: "How come I got accused?"
If you decide your co-worker maliciously accused you because of a personality or other conflict, tell the investigator so the real story can surface.
If, however, you got called on the carpet for telling off-color jokes or similar behaviors, immediately clean up your behavior. While this sounds like common sense, a surprising number of people accused of inappropriate behavior get their backs up when accused and "defend" themselves by escalating problem behavior. For example, those accused of telling inappropriate jokes often tell everyone they can find off-color jokes to make the point that others appreciate these jokes, thus nailing their own coffin shut.
Once accused, never confront your accuser alone, even if you see them off-site, particularly if you think they're out to get you. Those who confront accusers in icy parking lots risk their alleged victims running to their cars and "falling" into the car doors, then driving to a medical clinic and getting the wound photographed to substantiate a stalking allegation. Confront a frightened co-worker in a grocery store and the victim may scream, creating witness reports that turn a civil sexual harassment claim into a criminal suit.
* Editor's note: This story has been changed for the purpose of clarification regarding sexual harassment case decision. These case decisions rest on the basis of a preponderance of the evidence and the wording related to prima facie evidence has been deleted.