Quid pro quo sexual harassment means,
“This for that.”
Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase.
Examples of quid pro quo sexual harassment scenarios include:
The sexual harasser may condition any employment benefit on the sexual harassment victim’s tolerance of the sexual harassment. Employment benefits include the obvious such as raises, promotions, and the ability to keep one’s job. However, employment benefits also include not being put under the microscope, and not being written up for trivial issues. The assignment of work is also an employment benefit. When the victim of sexual harassment stops tolerating the sexual harassment they may find their job assignments more undesirable, the assignment of work uneven, or assignment of sales leads (if the employee is in sales) become worse than before.
Quid pro quo sexual harassment does not require there is an initial period of the sexual harassment victim going along with the sexual harassment. If the sexual harassment victim never tolerated the quid pro quo sexual harassment, and they were subjected to adverse job consequences they may have a case of quid pro quo sexual harassment.
If you experienced verbal or physical sexual harassment not necessarily linked to job benefits you may still have a case for sexual harassment. Click here to read about other forms of sexual harassment.worklawyerca.com/sexual-harassment-lawyer-los-angeles/
At a certain point it becomes clear to the victim of sexual harassment the conduct is sexual harassment opposed to their imagination, or a potential misinterpretation. The victim of sexual harassment may become empowered to complain due to a recent sexual harassment training, the support of other employees, or the elevation of the campaign of sexual harassment into a more severe format.
In quid pro quo sexual harassment, or sexual harassment retaliation cases based on other theories of sexual harassment, once the victim of sexual harassment has complained to management, or participated in a sexual harassment investigation the harasser treats the employee differently. All of the sudden the employee is subject to super scrutiny. If they come in a few minutes late they are written up. Promises of a raise or job promotion stop.
Sometimes the victim of sexual harassment has not actually complained about the sexual harassment, but it has become known to the harasser the victim is not interested in the sexually offensive conduct. Once this occurs any decent treatment of the victim of the harassment stops.
Although quid pro quo sexual harassment usually infers somebody with authority is engaging in the sexually hostile conduct it is possible a coworker could engage in quid pro quo sexual harassment. A coworker may create a hostile work environment in which comments are made about women, they touch women, or otherwise verbally harass based upon sex. If the coworker finds a way to make the employee’s job miserable if they object to the sexually hostile work environment they created that may be quid pro quo sexual harassment. However, if it is a sexually hostile work environment the coworker created it is actionable as sexual harassment if the conduct was known by a supervisor, or manager, or it did not stop after it was complained about to a supervisor or manager.
Coworkers can be involved in a hostile quid pro quo work environment along with a person of authority such as a manager. The coworker may be equally engaged in offensive sexual harassment along with a manager. The coworker may assist the boss or supervisor in their campaign of sexual harassment. Coworkers can also assist mangers and persons of authority in retaliating against an employee who objects to sexual harassment, or refuses to go along with it.
With all forms of sexual harassment it is less important what label is put on the sexual harassment than an inquiry be made by an experienced sexual harassment lawyer into whether the conduct amounts to sexual harassment. Quid pro quo sexual harassment is only one type of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is also illegal if many sexually harassment comments are made, or there is physical touching without it being clear job benefits are conditioned on the victim’s willingness to tolerate the sexual harassment.
If you have any questions about sexual harassment conduct our experienced California sexual harassment attorneys at 1-877-525-0700.
Sexual Harassment Case Results of Karl Gerber: