What Are The 3 Types Of Harassment?
By Corey Hanrahan
What are the 3 types of harassment? While harassment, like sexual harassment, can take many forms, it generally occurs as one of three types: (1) physical, (2) verbal, and (3) visual.
“…a man’s repeated starting at a woman’s breasts [cannot] be… understood as anything other than sexual…“
A hostile environment sexual harassment claim may arise where an employee is subject to unwanted touching. This sort of physical sexual harassment is oftentimes seen as more offensive than verbal sexual harassment. Additionally, there can be sexual harassment without physical touching, and without spoken words. Cases have previously held that a supervisor regularly staring at an employee’s breasts for several years while working together was sufficient to uphold a sexual harassment claim. The court, in that case, wrote, “a man’s repeated starting at a woman’s breasts [cannot] be… understood as anything other than sexual.”
Verbal harassment generally consists of offensive sexual remarks or offensive nonsexual statements of a discriminatory nature. This can include unwelcome sexual comments about an employee’s appearance or clothing (e.g., comments about an employee’s legs, other body parts, or tightness of the employee’s clothing). It is important to note that a claim that the harasser was “just kidding,” is not a valid defense.
Lastly, visual displays of offensive materials, like pornographic pictures, can contribute to a hostile work environment.
Sexual harassment is also a form of discrimination. It can present itself as a repeated pattern of unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that explicitly or implicitly affects an employee’s employment, unreasonably interferes with work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Sexual harassment includes but is not limited to sexual violence (rape), stalking, and gender-based violence.
Whether specific conduct rises to the level of actionable harassment usually requires an analysis from an experienced sexual harassment attorney, to make sure that the facts and case are properly prepared.
If you have been subjected to any form of harassment at work, including sexual harassment or sexual assault, contact The Hanrahan Firm for a free consultation.
