Quid pro quo sexual harassment means that the employer is conditioning certain job benefits on sexual actions. Quid pro quo is actually Latin meaning this for that. So an employer promises the employee like usually a lower level employee some type of benefits or job promotions if the employee engages in unwanted sexual actions.
Quid pro quo can happen between a supervisor, manager, owner of a company and any lower level employee. It's critical that if something like that happens to you that you speak with an attorney as soon as possible because there are strict deadlines for when you can file a lawsuit based off of quid pro quo sexual harassment. And there's certain things that need to be done before that lawsuit is filed.
In addition, the attorney will help you gather evidence, which is usually critical in these cases because it's usually a he said, she said type of situation. And so, it's very critical that you speak with an attorney as soon as you sense that there's any type of quid pro quo sexual harassment happening.
Why it's treated differently from other harassment
California law generally treats quid pro quo as its own category, separate from a hostile work environment claim. Because it involves an explicit trade of job benefits for sexual conduct, a single incident can be enough — you don't need the ongoing pattern that hostile-environment claims often require.
When a supervisor, manager, or owner applies the pressure, the law tends to hold the company more directly responsible, since that person acts with the company's authority. And you don't have to have "given in" to have a claim — being pressured, refusing, and then getting demoted or fired soon after can itself be the basis of one.
What to do next
Document the request as specifically as you can — what was said, by whom, and when — along with anything that happened to your job afterward. An attorney can help you evaluate the timeline and gather corroborating evidence before you approach HR or file anything.
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