I recently (reluctantly) attended the biennial mandatory sexual harassment seminar at my workplace.
The outside agitator - er instructor related an anecdote about a poor chap that went around with his hands at his sides, his eyes on the floor, never even addressing anybody unless he had to, and certainly never touching anybody (male or female).
You guessed it - the subject of a sexual harassment complaint.
It seems you have to "acknowledge" someone's presence and "notice" them. You just can't "acknowledge" or "notice" too much or in a way that "creates a hostile environment" in the mind of the complainant.
Two hours of male bashing, and I still don't know how to avoid a complaint.
Where I work, everyone has to attend a sexual harassment class when they are hired and have a "refresher course" every two years. It is a bloody waste of time.
Gads, I feel sorry for that guy. He thought that he was "playing it safe" and still gets screwed.
Luckily, we are not required to acknowledge people lest we risk a complaint. Many are so quick to find offense these days.
We had some chick...I mean broad...I mean woman...I mean female...I mean oppositely gendered from someone such as myself attorney at our offfice last year for our indoctrination session.
She kept smiling as she dropped multiple F-bombs but it was OK, because she was quoting from cases. I'm certain that she was getting off on doing that. Several of the men did speak informally with HR about feeling harassed. It was pretty offensive because normal people should not use that language in any context within a mixed environment
She was kind of cute though. (Just kidding, I'm not a harasser)