It’s common to think about sexual harassment as something physical that occurs on the job. Maybe it’s unwanted touching from a co-worker or something of this nature.
In the digital age, however, it’s also important to remember that sexual harassment doesn’t even require two people to be in the same location. If someone sends you unwanted explicit photos, for example, that is still sexual harassment even though they may say that they never touched you and didn’t realize they were doing anything wrong. As an employee, you still don’t deserve this type of treatment.
Why would it happen?
This type of harassment can happen for a lot of different reasons. In one case where it occurred, the woman to whom the explicit photos were sent then replied to a company email by sending the photo to everyone else in the office. This clearly brought the incident to light, and the excuse that her male co-worker gave was that he had been drinking before he sent her the photo.
But he also had expressed interest in having a relationship with her, and it was clear that he thought sending her the picture might make that possible. This made her feel very uncomfortable considering that she had no desire for a relationship, she had never requested those types of pictures and her co-worker was married at the time. Even when confronted, the co-worker continued to try to overstep the boundaries she tried to set.
What steps can you take?
Digital sexual harassment can reach you at any time, even long after work hours are over. If something like this does happen, make sure that you know exactly what legal steps to take, as no one deserves this type of treatment on the job.