Employers and supervisors are in a position to offer incentives to employees to award performance. Suggesting or demanding a subordinate perform or submit to sexual acts in exchange for work advancement or improvement is quid pro quo sexual harassment. Beware of these common examples of quid pro quo sexual harassment in the workplace in San Francisco.
Withholding or Promising Opportunities and Advancements in Exchange for Sexual Favors
An employee’s hard work can provide growth opportunities and job potential. As a reward for their performance, employees may receive bonuses, promotions, or paid time off. Employers should demonstrate fairness by offering these motivational incentives to each employee based on job performance.
An employee may experience quid pro quo sexual harassment when an employer or supervisor promises these incentives in return for sexual favors. An individual in a position of power over an employee may also threaten to withhold or deny these same opportunities if an employee does not agree to sexual acts.
For example, a supervisor may offer an employee a more favorable shift at work in exchange for the employee performing sexual favors. Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when an employee’s job benefits or suffers as a result of their providing or refusing a sexual favor or act to an individual in a position to impact an employee’s job.
Threatening to Terminate an Employee For Rejecting Sexual Comments or Advances
Supervisors and subordinates engage in work relationships that can foster healthy subordinate-supervisor relationships and supportive work environments. Job security should never hinge on an employee’s forced subjection to sexual harassment. Employers who threaten conditional employment based on an employee’s silence and acceptance of sexual innuendos are engaging in sexual harassment, a form of discrimination.
Threatening Unfavorable Work Conditions Unless an Employee Agrees to Sexual Favors
An employee’s job description should reflect their duties and responsibilities. Quid pro quo sexual harassment may result in a supervisor assigning more stringent jobs, less desirable tasks, or requiring excessive overtime hours as a form of retaliation against an employee who refuses a sexual encounter. A supervisor may verbally express that an employee’s job conditions can improve by agreeing to a sexual favor.
Offering Employment in Exchange for Sexual Acts or Intimate Engagement
Quid pro quo harassment can occur during the hiring process when someone is seeking employment. An employer should base hiring criteria on an employee’s knowledge, skills, and job abilities.
Having a potential employer suggest securing a position may be based on encounters outside the work environment, potentially over dinner, drinks, or in an intimate scenario, is unlawful.
Using Prior Support as Leverage to Force a Sexual Encounter
Support, assistance, and awards given by a supervisor or a C-level employee demonstrate their belief in an employee’s potential and acknowledge their accomplishments. However, employers engage unprofessionally and unlawfully when they express that an employee owes them sexually for their prior support.
Supervisors and C-level employees have the power to offer beneficial circumstances to employees. This power can put an employee in a vulnerable position when an employer suggests that the employee is indebted to them and should comply with their sexual requests or advances.
Are You Experiencing Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment in a California Workplace?
Sexual harassment may not always be an obvious act or request. Numerous types of quid pro quo sexual harassment may exist. Discuss any questionable conditional circumstance an employer places on your employment to determine if you are experiencing quid pro quo sexual harassment in San Francisco.