Welcome to Littler´s Employment Law Quiz! Fine-tune your knowledge of employment law while improving your employee relations skills at the same time. You can test yourself or send this quiz around to your managers. Good luck!

Sexual Harassment by a Supervisor

John, a sales manager at a radio station, tells Susan, one of the salespersons, that he will promote her to be the assistant sales manager if she first goes out with him. Susan complains to John´s supervisor who thereafter fires John for this conduct. In these circumstances, does Susan have a viable sexual harassment claim against the company?

A. No, because the company took immediate and appropriate correction action.

B. No, because Susan did not actually sleep with John.

C. No, unless Susan suffered some sort of adverse employment action or unless John´s conduct rises to the level of a hostile work environment.

D. No, because Susan did not tell John that his conduct was offensive.

E. No, absent proof that Susan was psychologically affected by John´s conduct.

C is the correct answer. The statement in C is an example of economic harassment, which is defined as harassment that results in some sort of tangible employment action or economic loss. It should be pointed out that the facts seem to indicate that only one instance of inappropriate conduct occurred. Generally, in order to have a viable claim of environmental harassment, it would be necessary to establish that more than one such episode occurred. However, a single incident of economic harassment can expose an employer to enormous liability. Economic harassment focuses on the harm to the victim rather than the conduct of the harasser. It requires that a threat of job detriment or promise of job benefit actually results in some sort of employment action. It is critical for an employer to train and instruct its managers on what constitutes economic sexual harassment. The best and only way for an employer to avoid liability for economic sexual harassment is to ensure that it never occurs.