A group of employees are gathered around a table to work on a project. A group of employees are gathered around a laptop having a discussion.

Summary

Although the previous scenarios generally focus on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, every one of us has at least one protected characteristic. For example, men are protected from harassment based on their gender just as women are.

And while it's OK to treat people differently at work based on legitimate business reasons, like performance, it's not OK to discriminate against employees or harass them simply because of their protected characteristic.

And by law and policy, no one should be subject to any unwelcome conduct, whether verbal, physical, visual, or electronic that is based on a protected characteristic where the conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with someone's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.