Recently in Sexual Harassment / Workplace Harassment Category

"Quid pro quo" and "hostile work environment." That's how a court determines if you've been sexually harassed. While this may make sense to lawyers and judges, this may not make sense to most people who don't practice law for a living.

Instead, you may be aware that certain behavior is okay in the workplace while other behavior clearly crosses the line. Sexual harassment is determined on a case-by-case basis, though you should know that there are some signs that you're being sexually harassed at work.

Sharon Starzyk was one of several women who sued the Town of Cicero and its President Larry Dominick for sexual harassment. The town finally agreed to pay Starzyk $500,000. However, the $500,000 was not to settle the former city employee’s sexual harassment lawsuit, instead it was to settle her wrongful termination lawsuit.

Starzyk was fired in 2009 just a few months after she filed a sexual harassment claim against Dominick, reports MyFox Chicago. She later agreed to drop the sexual harassment claim, but she continued her wrongful termination suit against the town.

If you believe that you have been discriminated at work because of your race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information, you may want to sue your employer.

However, before you can file a federal discrimination lawsuit, you will first have to know about filing a complaint with the EEOC. That’s because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) usually has first crack at resolving your complaint, and you will need to complain to them first before bringing a private lawsuit.

The Lake Forest Police Department will conduct an independent investigation to determine if there was sexual harassment against a 22-year-old police intern.

The alleged victim of the harassment claimed that a student resources officer engaged in inappropriate conversation with the intern, reports the Chicago Tribune. If the investigation corroborates the claim, the student resources officer could face disciplinary action and the investigation could also form the basis of a Lake Forest sexual harassment lawsuit.

College internships are a strange thing. They could be considered an extended interview that lasts the entire summer. And given this tough economic climate, interns probably want to make very good inpressions in hopes that they get the permanent offer when the internship is done.

In that way, interns are very low on the totem pole of the workplace and completely at the mercy of the employer. And so they may be especially vulnerable to sexual harassment and reluctant to report harassment, writes the Chicago Tribune. But as sexual harassment of interns appears to be so prevalent, college students and other interns should be aware that they do not have to put up with abusive treatment even if they are the low-man or woman in the office.

We've written a lot about sexual harassment and sexual harassment settlements and most of the time, the cases have involved male supervisors harassing a group of women. While this may be the typical scenario, this is also not the possibility for sexual harassment claims.

The following are four of the top myths about sexual harassment:

The number of sexual harassment complaints have declined significantly over the past 15 years, falling 26 percent, says the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in a study. Last year, only 11,717 cases were filed.

But does this really mean fewer women (and sometimes men) are being sexually harassed at work?

Herman Cain has been dominating the news for all the wrong reasons. It seems that women are coming out of the woodworks accusing the presidential hopeful of sexual harassment. To some (mainly Cain supporters), the accusers are engaged in a desperate money or power grab.

So you may be wondering how much does a sexual harassment lawsuit pay?

The Sharon Bialek sexual harassment complaint against Herman Cain is the first complaint against the presidential hopeful to go public.

Bialek, a Chicago-area woman, accuses Cain of making unwanted sexual advances against her back in 1997, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. It was not reported whether Bialek had already sued Cain (or whether she can even sue Cain if she wanted to), and so you may be wondering just what is it that Bialek wants by going public now.

Halloween is a fun time for adults. You get a chance to dress up and fantasize a bit. However, the workplace may not be the best place to bust out your most outrageous costumes. To avoid mistakes for Halloween costumes at work, you may want to avoid:

1. Wearing too little.

Leave the sexy for after-work. It seems as if every costume for adults is a racy version of something. Sexy nurses, sexy teachers, and even sexy zombies. While these costumes may be fun for Halloween parties, these may be completely inappropriate for the office.