Harassment of any kind has no place in the workplace. If you are an employer subject to federal anti-discrimination laws, you have a legal obligation to provide a work environment that is free from intimidation, insult, or ridicule based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. You must also be concerned with preventing harassment because you can sometimes be sued in state courts, depending on your state's anti-discrimination laws.

Therefore, take steps to prevent and deal with sexual and other types of harassment in your workplace. As an employer, you may be held liable for your own acts of harassment that affect employees in the workplace, as well as the acts of your managers, employees, and even harassment by customers, suppliers, and others who regularly do business with you.

Your manager would like you help in developing a training program. As such, he has requested you to evaluate the applicable laws and add a section to the employee handbook. Draft a section for the employee handbook that addresses the following:

• Gender discrimination
• Sex discrimination
• Harassment
• Hostile workplace