It’s Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, which has been observed every April since President Obama started his first term. Sexual harassment in the workplace is one category pertinent to the issue of sexual assault.

Unfortunately, in fact, harassment too commonly progresses to assault. Wendy L. Patrick, PhD, Psychology Today, who is very familiar with legal cases that escalated “from harassment to assault” due to her background prosecuting such cases. “Initiated within a culture of hostility and sexual innuendo, the misconduct often begins with leering, progresses to sexualized language and inappropriate touching, and can lead to sexual assault.”

“Sexual harassment interferes with your performance by threatening your job security or becoming an obstacle to effective work,” states the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

What is sexual harassment? Also according to the EEOC, it “includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature in the workplace or learning environment…does not always have to be specifically about sexual behavior or directed at a specific person.”

Actor/director David Schwimmer just announced the creation of six brief videos, an awareness campaign called #ThatsHarassment. At least two of the presentations, based on real incidents, involve the workplace.

The one seen below stars Schwimmer as the offending boss. As Dr. Patrick stated in a more recent post, “Sexual harassment is often an exploitation of power imbalance. Such harassment is not motivated by sexual interest, but by the desire to intimidate, humiliate, or degrade.”

Another post by Dr. Patrick on this topic (Psychology Today) points out some additional facts of importance. Click on the link for detailed descriptions of the ways perpetrators may operate.

Research demonstrates that employees who hold sexually permissive attitudes are at greater risk for becoming involved in sexual harassment, either as a perpetrator or a victim.[2] Research also demonstrates that men hold more sexually permissive attitudes than women.[3] With both men and women, sexually permissive attitudes may be gauged through tolerance testing and physical boundary probing…

In addition, “Other ways in which sexual harassers capitalize upon victim receptivity to inappropriate behavior include shaming, power exploitation, and inappropriate methods of control.”

For more info about #ThatsHarassment, look for it on Facebook or Twitter.