Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviors of a sexual nature that occur within a work environment. Sexual harassment can manifest in many forms and actions, and may be verbal or physical.

Verbal harassment, in relation to sexual harassment matters, is unwanted verbal comments that make an employee feel upset, intimidated, or even violated. Verbal harassment in the workplace is usually sexual in nature and can be extremely derogatory. Examples of verbal harassment include, but are not limited to:

• making lewd, sexual comments
• telling lewd jokes
• teasing a person so that he/she is embarrassed
• threatening a person
• poking fun at a person’s appearance
• making suggestive comments to a person
• making crude comments about a person’s appearance

Once a person has become a victim of verbal harassment in his/her place of work, he/she may be unsure of what he/she should do next. He/she may feel so overwhelmed by the verbal harassment that he/she may not know what actions he/she should take to terminate the unwanted comments. Or, he/she may feel helpless and may be under the impression that the situation is out of his/her control.

However, it is important for verbal harassment victims to know that they have options and can take steps to stop the harassment. First, victims should tell the person or persons who are engaging in harassment to “stop”. If the harassment does not stop, then the person should report the harassment to upper management or to his/her human resources department. The person should also write down all instances of verbal harassment (date, time, what was said) so that he/she has documentation. Most importantly, verbal harassment victims should consider speaking with an experienced sexual harassment lawyer, like the lawyers at Employment Lawyer's Group.

If you would like to speak with one of our knowledgeable Los Angeles sexual harassment attorneys, please call 1-888-252-7991 to schedule your case evaluation.