Toni Jaramilla | A Professional Law Corporation

Begin protecting your civil rights and employment rights today

310-551-3020

Begin protecting your civil rights and employment rights today

310-551-3020

Toni Jaramilla and her staff are available to speak with you by phone to assist you during our normal office hours of 9:00 – 5:00. We are offering our clients and potential clients the option to connect with us through telephone, email, and zoom video-conferencing. Please call us to discuss your options.

Quid Pro Quo
  1. Home
    2.  » 
  2. Sexual Harassment And Gender Discrimination
    3.  » Quid Pro Quo

Were You Pressured At Work? Was It Quid Pro Quo?

When a senior co-worker, supervisor or manager pressures you to provide sexual favors in exchange for job benefits, this follows the textbook definition of quid pro quo, which means “this for that” in Latin. A quid pro quo situation may also be a reverse type of demand situation involving threats after the fact.

Someone who has experienced quid pro quo sexual harassment on the job knows all too well what this type of pressure can mean in practical terms. Perhaps your own circumstances mirrored a scenario like one of these:

  • Your boss hinted around at wanting to have an affair with you. His or her hints turned into increasingly insistent persuasion, delivered along with promises of a raise, a promotion or exemption from a planned layoff.
  • A senior member of your team had been asking you out on dates for a while. You may or may not have liked the idea, but you believed the company’s anti-fraternization policy made this a bad idea, so consistently declined. The invitations became more pressing, along with threats to give you poor performance review ratings if you did not acquiesce.
  • A manager in your division made passes at you when the two of you found yourselves alone in a supply room. In an effort to cover it up, he or she insinuated that if you divulged what happened to anyone else, you would be demoted or even fired.
  • A co-worker started giving you flowers and other unwanted gifts, along with implicit invitations for romance outside of work. You made it clear after a time or two that the answer was no and that the gifts were unwelcome. Now he or she claims to have acquired “compromising photos” of you, of a sexual nature (either doctored or authentic). He or she has threatened to show them to your boss or others if you do not give in to the requests for an intimate relationship.

You may or may not have consented to inappropriate sexual encounters under circumstances such as these. Whether you did or not, the fact that the other person had power over you is the key factor making you a survivor of quid pro quo sexual harassment.

A Los Angeles Employment Law Firm At Your Service

Now that you have stepped back to wonder what legal recourse you may have, it is time to consult with an employment law attorney at Toni Jaramilla, A Professional Law Corporation. Learn about your options by calling 310-551-3020 or sending an email inquiry through this website.