Sexual Harassment In The Workplace Memo Analysis

The purpose of this memo is to offer advice on how to handle discrimination, specifically sexual harassment, in the workplace. First, I will describe discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. It is important to know what it might look like, not only as a manager but also as an employee. Next, I will examine relevant laws, employer liabilities, and adverse effects of sexual harassment. Moreover, I will outline how to properly investigate a discrimination complaint and fight discrimination from within an organization to prevent future occurrences. Indeed, the behavior of Mr. Ted Thompson is sexual harassment and someone must act immediately. Perhaps, this memo and its recommendations can help facilitate a productive conversation

2). There are several forms of discrimination; however, we are interested in workplace discrimination based on an individual’s gender or sex. In the case of Mr. Thompson, we are concerned with sexual harassment, a form of gender discrimination.

The Legal Environment Laws. Currently, sexual harassment is a prohibited under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, the United States (US) did not recognize sexual harassment as a form of employment discrimination until the 1980s. First, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) set the following guidelines in 1980:

“unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature will be considered harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment” (Hoyman & Stein, 2005, p.