Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment

In employment law, hostile environment sexual harassment refers to a situation where employees in a workplace are subject to a pattern of exposure to unwanted sexual behavior from persons other than an employee's direct supervisor where supervisors or managers take no steps to discourage or discontinue such behavior. It is distinguished from quid pro quo sexual harassment, where a direct supervisor seeks sexual favors in return for something within the supervisor's powers, such as threatening to fire someone, or offering them a raise. Quid pro quo has been recognized as actionable for decades, but courts have only recognized hostile environment as an actionable behavior since the late 1980s as they made findings that the loss of employment or constructive dismissal has been caused by such behavior. Some situations that have been ruled to constitute such a hostile environment are:

• Posting pictures of pornography in employee's cubicles
• Consistently telling "dirty" jokes or stories where all employees in the work area can hear them
• Tolerating employees who make sexually suggestive remarks about other employees within earshot of others
• Allowing peer employees, clients, suppliers, delivery persons, or even customers (Lockard v. Pizza Hut, 162 F.3d 1062, 1073) to persist in unwanted attention, such as asking for dates
• Allowing the use of derogatory terms with a sexual connotation (e.g., "pussy," "girlie-man," "player") to be used to describe co-workers
• Allowing frequent physical contact, even when not sexual