Many employees believe their employer is only responsible for preventing and acting on sexual harassment if it occurs in the workplace. In fact, employer responsibility and liability can extend far beyond that.
Employees often are required – or at least expected – to interact in a multitude of settings. These can include off-site conferences and team-building events, holiday parties, charity events, company picnics, softball games, Happy Hours and gatherings like employee weddings and showers. Employees can also run into one another outside of work and contact people any time virtually via text, email or social media.
Sexual harassment can occur in any of these settings. But is an employer responsible for investigating alleged sexual harassment if it occurred outside of work – and maybe even outside a work-related event?
A hostile work environment
The reason an employer can still be held liable for sexual harassment is that it can create a hostile work environment for the person who has been or is currently being harassed. Under Colorado law, employers can be responsible if the “conduct or communication has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.”
Even if a harasser behaves professionally in the workplace, their presence can cause their victim to be frightened, angry or intimidated. A victim might take steps to avoid interacting with their harasser that could be detrimental to their job or even their career – such as turning down high-profile projects or rejecting a promotion. The harasser – especially if they have authority over their victim – may deny them good assignments or otherwise retaliate against them, especially if they believe their “advances” were rebuffed.
What are an employer’s responsibilities?
Typically, it’s best for employees to report sexual harassment to Human Resources or their manager as soon after it occurs as possible – wherever and however it happened. When the manager is the harasser, it may be necessary to go to another manager if there’s no designated HR department.
Once an employer is informed of alleged harassment, they have an obligation to investigate and take appropriate action. They cannot legally retaliate against an employee for a good-faith report of harassment.
It’s not always that simple. Many employees choose not to report it if it doesn’t happen again and it hasn’t created a hostile work environment. That’s an individual choice. However, it’s always smart to document what happened, note any witnesses and save evidence like texts or voicemails. It can also be worthwhile to get experienced legal guidance to help determine how best to proceed.