Sexual Harassment?

Sexual Harassment

n. unwanted sexual approaches and/or repeated unpleasant, degrading and/or sexist remarks

Sexual Harassment is usually discussed in terms of negative sexual superior/subordinate interaction as it might relate to negative employment consequence. Is it always? As I understand it, there doesn't have to be an implied or otherwise threat or reward to be considered sexual harassment.

I was involved in some dealing with sexual harassment the other day. I signed a confidentiality agreement so I will not go any further into the specifics. It just made me think about my time at Kinko's.

During my time at Kinko's, I was a supervisor for the majority of the time and I had several females working under me. The relationships I formed with my team members were far from professional. I mean we took care of business and all, but we were friends, in some cases more.

There was one lady in particular, I will withhold everyone's names, who no matter where I would bend down would sneak up behind me and grab my ass, sometimes she'd go further and grab my tool. Don't get me wrong, I loved playing with her. She understood if she touched me I'd touch her the same way. So yes we spent a lot of time hugging, kissing and groping each other.

There was another whose nipples always seemed to find their way into my mouth. There was even a lesbian who used to love for me to simulate going down on her. She used to tell me if she and her girl did not last she would give me a run. Others would just be too forward and like corner me. Or some others would try to hook me up with friends.

It wasn't uncommon for me to walk up to one of my female team members and be like "Your ass is like whoa in those jeans." Or for them to try to get a reaction out of me by telling me about an episode they had with their latest boy toy.

I was popular to the point where I could walk over to the next branch and do the same.

There was one male team member who was my supervisor at the time who once tried to corner me and have me undress in front of him. Or since I wasn't shy, I'd change in front of the ladies in the break room to save time, mostly, but I liked the comments and attention too. He'd watch me sucking his fingers and licking his lips. I can say he made me feel uncomfortable at times, but he got the point when I talked to him about it. I don't think he was seriously attracted to me and I got over it.

Was this sexual harassment on my part or on the part of my team members? I mean I wasn't like that with everyone, some people were just unapproachable, others were too approachable.