If, after tolerating a problem for some time, the supervisor issues a disciplinary letter and chastises the employee for behavior previously condoned, the employee is confused by the manager's sudden change of tactics. The most common example is the supervisor who constantly approves annual leave and then decides to discipline the subordinate for having taken the leave. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination which is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. No one factor controls. An assessment is made based upon the totality of the circumstances.
Sexual conduct becomes unlawful only when it is unwelcome.
The challenged conduct must be unwelcome in the sense that the employee did not solicit or incite it, and in the sense that the employee regarded the conduct as undesirable or offensive. When confronted with conflicting evidence as to whether conduct was welcome, the EEOC will look at the record as a whole and at the totality of the circumstances, evaluating each situation on a case by case basis. The victim may be a women or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.