In recent years, there has been an increase in complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace and this has become an issue of debate. Sexual harassment does not only negatively affect the harassed, it is also; harmful to the overall employee morale, a drain on company finances, and inconducive to a productive company. This report has been written as per your request in response to recent allegations, and its purpose is to show some of the practical applications and benefits of a sexual harassment policy, along with some examples of other companies' policies.
             Sexual harassment in itself is a very broad term and the focus of this report is to define and apply sexual harassment to the workplace. By using many general examples along with two specific ones this report will put sexual harassment into perspective in our workplace and provide a foundation upon which an effective policy can be written.
             Sexual harassment is a fact of life in the American workplace; twenty one percent of women polled by Newsweek said they had been harassed at work and forty two percent said they knew someone who had been harassed (Kantrowitz, 17). Defining sexual harassment is an area of much debate due primarily to the fact that it is more based on how an action is perceived than on the action itself. In addition to managers and supervisors understanding what type of behavior constitutes sexual harassment, equally as important is for them to know how and in what manner to respond to a complaint of sexual harassment. An environment that encourages reporting of sexual harassment is perhaps more important than the anti-harassment policy language itself. According to Los Angeles attorney Carla D. Barboza employees who experience harassment look first not to the policy, but to how other employees were treated when they reported harassment (BNA, 1998). It is for this reason that employee training is an essential component of a successful sexual har...