Visual Harassment in the Workplace

If you’re in the workplace and people say things to you that are demeaning, insulting, lewd, or harassing, you may know you’re a victim of workplace harassment. The same goes, of course, if there is any unwanted touching, or perhaps, coercion to engage in sexual or romantic activity as a condition of working there.

But what about things that you see? Can you be harassed, even if nobody actually says anything to you, if you are  exposed, visually, to things that are insulting, lewd, sexual, insulting or demeaning?  The answer is YES.

Visual Harassment is Real, and Illegal

Many who do feel harassed by things they see or are visually exposed to, face scorn—others will say that you are being “too sensitive,” and that “nobody said anything to you,” and as such, you have no right to complain about harassment just because you had to see things that were harassing.

They couldn’t be more wrong—it’s called visual workplace harassment, and it is a valid, and illegal, form of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Examples of Visual Harassment

There are a number of ways that visual harassment can happen.

Often, emails, texts, items on social media or videos may be circulated, which contain insulting lewd, or demeaning imagines—images which may be directly related to you (like a picture of you), or just images that demean women (in sexual harassment cases), or the elderly, or handicapped persons.

Management or employees may post things in public places that are harassing or demeaning. For example, images of scantily clad women or men, or jokes that demean people of a given race or nationality posted in a shared work area.

Allowing fellow employees to wear clothing that is demeaning to women or minorities, or which may have messages that are harassing to minorities, religions, women, or nationalities, also can be visual harassment.

Even just gestures, or intensive and inappropriate staring, can constitute visual harassment.

Hostile Work Environment Claims

Many cases involving visual harassment, don’t attack or relate directly to the harassed employee directly, they often relate only to a class of people—in sexual harassment cases, men or women. So, for example, nobody may be posting a lewd picture of you, personally, but they might instead display a wall calendar with women in bikinis.

This makes many visual harassment cases, hostile work environment cases. This is where an employee isn’t directly attacked or insulted, but rather, the environment in the workplace has become harassing to, or hostile to, a given protected class, such as women or older workers or nationalities.

Saving Offensive Material

Although the inclination may be to ignore any offensive visual material, or to throw it away if it is received, aggrieved employees should take pictures of, or keep any data, that displays the harassing information, as often, it is removed or destroyed very quickly by management, or by whomever originally displayed it.

And of course, any visual harassment by a coworker, like a lewd gesture, should be immediately reported to management or supervisors.

Are you being harassed at work? Contact the San Jose employment law and discrimination attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm.