ABA Family Legal Guide

Law and the Workplace

On the Job

Sexual Harassment

If a worker "voluntarily" has sex with a supervisor, does this mean that she has not been sexually harassed?

Not necessarily. In order to constitute harassment, sexual advances must be "unwelcome." If an employee by her conduct shows that sexual advances are unwelcome, it does not matter that she eventually "voluntarily" succumbs to the harassment. In deciding whether the sexual advances are unwelcome, the courts often will allow evidence concerning the employee's dress, behavior, and language, as indications of whether the employee welcomed the advances.

Moreover, sexual advances that initially may have been welcomed subsequently may become unwelcome. Thus, an employee who engages in a welcomed office romance with a supervisor, but later decides to end it, may become the victim of quid pro quo harassment if the supervisor demotes the employee because she refuses to continue the romance.