SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND OTHER FORMS OF
HARASSMENT POLICY
The Field Library is committed to maintaining a collegial work environment in which all
individuals are treated with respect and dignity. Each individual has the right to work in a
professional atmosphere that promotes equal employment opportunities and prohibits
discrimination, including harassment. The Library expects that all relationships among our
employees will be business-like and free of bias, prejudice and harassment. It is the Library’s
policy to prohibit harassment of any employee by a manager or supervisor, another employee,
patron, guest, or visitor on the basis of sex or gender. The purpose of this policy is not to regulate
personal morality or to impose upon one's personal life, but to demonstrate the Library’s strong
commitment to maintaining a work environment free of harassment. It is to ensure that at the
Library, all employees are free from harassment on the basis of sex or gender.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment constitutes sex discrimination and is illegal under federal, state and/or local laws
and is defined, as in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Guidelines, as:
 “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical
conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when (1) submission to such
conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s
employment, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as
the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or (3) such conduct has
the purpose of reasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating
an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.”
 Sexual harassment may include a range of subtle and not so subtle conduct and may
involve individuals of the same or different gender. While it is not easy to define
precisely what types of conduct could constitute sexual harassment, examples of
prohibited behavior include: unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,
obscene gestures, displaying sexually graphic magazines, calendars, posters or Internet
sites, sending sexually explicit e-mail, voicemail or other electronic transmissions. It
also includes other verbal, physical or visual conduct of a sexual nature such as:
uninvited touching of a sexual nature or sexually-related comments, subtle and overt
pressures for sexual favors, sexual joking, vulgar or offensive conversation or jokes,
commenting about an employee's physical appearance, conversation about one’s own
or someone else's sex life, teasing or other conduct directed toward a person because of
his or her gender which is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create an unprofessional
and hostile working environment.
Other Harassment
Similarly, the Library also prohibits harassment of any employee by any manager, supervisor,
another employee, patron, guest or visitor on the basis of age, race, religion, color, national origin,
citizenship, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, marital status, sexual orientation,
military status, or any other characteristic protected by law. While it is not easy to define precisely
what harassment is, examples include:
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Verbal (including improper joking or teasing) or physical conduct that denigrates or
shows hostility or aversion towards an individual because of these protected attributes,
and that (1) has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive
working environment as defined by law, or (2) has the purpose or effect of unreasonably
interfering with an individual's work performance, or (3) otherwise adversely affects an
individual's employment opportunities.
Such conduct includes, but is not limited to: epithets, slurs or negative stereotyping,
threatening, intimidating or hostile acts, denigrating jokes and display or circulation in
the workplace of written or graphic material that denigrates or shows hostility or
aversion toward an individual or group, including through the use of email or the
Internet.
Reporting Harassment
The Library strongly encourages the reporting of all perceived incidents of harassment, regardless
of the offender’s identity or position.
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Anyone who believes that he or she has been subjected to sexual harassment or any
other form of harassment should immediately report the matter to their supervisor or the
Library Director.
The Library Director will ensure that an investigation is immediately conducted. Every
claim of perceived harassment will be investigated promptly and thoroughly. If the
investigation reveals that sexual harassment or other harassment has occurred,
immediate corrective action will be taken.
The Library Director will report the findings and recommendations to the Board of
Trustees for their review and approval.
Appropriate disciplinary action, which may include the bringing of disciplinary charges
against the offending employee and possible termination of employment, will be taken
against any employee who violates this policy.
Retaliation Prohibited
No one will be subject to, and the Library prohibits, any form of discipline or retaliation for
reporting incidents of unlawful harassment, pursuing any such claim, or cooperating in the
investigation of such reports. Retaliation is a serious violation of this policy and, like harassment
or discrimination itself, anyone engaging in such behavior will be subject to disciplinary action.
Approved by The Field Library Board of Trustees January, 2013