| 5 November 2026
Sexual harassment doesn’t always become normalised through obvious or escalating incidents. Sometimes, it’s the everyday behaviours, blurred professional boundaries and workplace responses that allow harmful conduct to go unchallenged.
What constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace?
Under the Equality Act 2010, sexual harassment involves unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
Sexual harassment can affect anyone, regardless of gender. It may involve verbal, physical or digital behaviour, and even a single incident can constitute sexual harassment.
Importantly, behaviour can constitute sexual harassment even when harm wasn’t intended. What matters is not only the intention behind the behaviour, but also its effect on the person experiencing it, considered in the surrounding circumstances.
As Acas explains in its guidance on sexual harassment, unwanted sexual behaviour may amount to harassment regardless of the individual’s intent. Not every inappropriate interaction will meet the legal definition. However, organisations shouldn’t wait for behaviour to escalate or for a legal threshold to be established before taking concerns seriously.
Here are seven warning signs that healthcare staff and managers should recognise – from the subtle influence of workplace hierarchies to the ways inappropriate behaviour can become accepted as part of organisational culture.
1. Inappropriate behaviour becomes part of the team culture
Workplace culture is shaped by what people accept, overlook or challenge.
In close-knit healthcare teams, humour and informal interactions can help colleagues navigate demanding environments. But when sexualised comments, personal remarks or boundary-crossing behaviour are repeatedly dismissed as banter, they can gradually influence what a team considers acceptable.
The warning sign isn’t always an escalation in behaviour. Sometimes it’s a change in what people have come to tolerate.
When colleagues stop questioning inappropriate interactions because “that’s just how things are here”, harmful behaviour can become normalised, making it harder for individuals to recognise or challenge concerns.
2. Professional familiarity begins to blur boundaries
Healthcare environments often involve close working relationships, emotional demands and strong professional bonds. But familiarity should never be mistaken for unrestricted access to someone’s personal life or physical space.
Boundaries can become blurred when friendly interactions develop into increasingly personal attention, expectations of closeness, or behaviour that someone feels uncomfortable rejecting.
This can be particularly difficult to navigate when colleagues work long shifts together, rely on one another professionally, or feel pressure to preserve established relationships.
The important question isn’t simply whether the behaviour was intended to be friendly, but whether it was welcome and how it was experienced.
3. Digital communication creates opportunities for boundaries to be crossed
Digital communication is an established part of healthcare work, from shift coordination and team messaging to professional networking. But the convenience and informality of these channels can sometimes blur the distinction between professional communication and unwanted personal attention.
A work-related conversation may become increasingly personal, continue outside working hours, or create an expectation of responses that the recipient doesn’t welcome. Private messages, images and online interactions can also make inappropriate behaviour less visible to colleagues and managers.
Professional boundaries don’t disappear when communication moves online. Recognising when contact becomes unwanted, intrusive, or sexualised is as important digitally as it is face-to-face.
4. Professional hierarchies make challenging behaviour feel difficult
Power doesn’t always need to be exercised explicitly to influence someone’s response.
In healthcare, seniority, clinical authority, professional reputation, and responsibility for training or career progression can all affect whether someone feels able to challenge behaviour.
An individual may appear to accept inappropriate attention because they’re concerned about damaging professional relationships, being labelled difficult, or jeopardising future opportunities.
This can be particularly relevant to trainees, junior staff and others who depend on colleagues for supervision, assessment, or professional development.
The absence of a complaint doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of harm. Organisations need to consider whether workplace power dynamics are making it difficult for people to raise concerns safely.
5. Silence, laughter or apparent participation is interpreted as acceptance
People don’t always respond to uncomfortable situations by openly objecting. Someone might laugh nervously, remain silent, change the subject or participate superficially to avoid conflict, embarrassment or potential repercussions.
These responses can be particularly difficult to interpret in workplaces where people feel pressure to fit in, maintain professional relationships, or avoid disrupting team dynamics.
Intent and impact aren’t necessarily the same. Someone may believe they’re joking or being friendly, while another person experiences the behaviour as unwanted or intimidating.
Recognising this distinction means paying attention to context and boundaries rather than assuming that a lack of resistance indicates acceptance.
6. Inappropriate behaviour from patients or visitors becomes an expected part of the job
Healthcare staff regularly navigate challenging interactions while maintaining compassion, professionalism and a duty of care.
However, this can sometimes create an expectation that inappropriate sexual comments, unwanted attention, or boundary-crossing behaviour from patients, relatives or visitors must simply be tolerated.
Patient circumstances may complicate how an incident should be understood and managed. For example, illness, cognitive impairment or distress may affect behaviour and require a considered response.
But understanding why behaviour occurs is not the same as accepting that staff should be exposed to harm.
Organisations need to recognise these risks, support affected staff and identify proportionate responses that protect both workforce safety and appropriate patient care.
7. Concerns are addressed individually, but wider patterns are missed
Harmful workplace cultures don’t necessarily develop because concerns are never raised. Sometimes they develop because incidents are considered in isolation, without recognising patterns.
A comment may be dismissed as a misunderstanding. A colleague’s discomfort may be minimised. Repeated concerns involving the same behaviour or individual may be handled separately, preventing a broader picture from emerging.
Over time, this can undermine confidence in reporting and reinforce the perception that certain behaviours are tolerated.
Effective prevention means paying attention not only to individual incidents, but also to the organisational conditions that allow harmful behaviour to continue.
Recognising patterns, responding consistently and creating confidence in reporting arrangements are essential to building safer workplace cultures.
What should you do if you recognise these warning signs?
Recognising potentially harmful behaviour is an important first step. Responding appropriately requires consideration of the situation, the people involved, and any immediate risks.
Depending on the circumstances, appropriate steps may include:
- Recognise and reflect: Consider what happened, its impact and whether professional boundaries were crossed.
- Check in and offer support: If someone appears uncomfortable, consider whether it’s appropriate and safe to speak with them privately.
- Record concerns factually: Note relevant details, including what happened, when and who was involved, while following organisational confidentiality and information-handling requirements.
- Seek advice or report appropriately: Follow workplace policies and reporting procedures, including alternative routes where a concern involves a manager or senior colleague.
- Prioritise safety: If there is an immediate risk, seek appropriate assistance and follow relevant safeguarding or emergency procedures.
Direct confrontation isn’t always the safest or most appropriate response. Individuals should not be expected to investigate concerns or determine whether unlawful harassment has occurred themselves.
Importantly, colleagues who witness inappropriate behaviour also have a role to play. Acas guidance on witnessing sexual harassment explains how witnesses can offer support, record what happened and raise concerns through appropriate reporting procedures.
Responsibility for preventing sexual harassment must not rest solely with those experiencing it.
Building understanding beyond awareness
As the UK’s Sector Skills Council for Health, Skills for Health recognises that effective sexual harassment prevention learning needs to reflect the realities of healthcare workplaces.
Our new Sexual Harassment Prevention eLearning course, developed with specialist input, uses nuanced healthcare scenarios to explore how harmful conduct develops, how workplace culture and power dynamics influence experiences, and the practical choices available when concerns arise.
Rather than simply identifying prohibited behaviour, learners are encouraged to consider different perspectives, develop practical judgement and apply their understanding to real-world situations.
The course is also part of our refreshed Equality, Diversity and Human Rights (EDHR) learning suite, which connects related issues of discrimination, harassment, inequality and workplace culture.
Because meaningful prevention isn’t just about knowing what constitutes inappropriate behaviour. It’s about recognising when boundaries are being crossed and understanding how to respond.
Explore our EDHR eLearning suite, inclusive of Sexual Harassment Prevention training