Sexual harassment prevention often struggles for a simple reason: Most people don’t believe it applies to them. Employees generally agree that sexual harassment is serious and unacceptable. They understand the rules. They know the policies. And when asked, the overwhelming majority express confidence that they would respond appropriately if they encountered harassment at work.
And yet, problems persist.
This disconnect is not about bad intentions. It's about relevance.
Many learners move through sexual harassment prevention training believing there is nothing personally for them to learn or change. After all, they are good people. They don't intend to harass anyone. But intent alone does not prevent harm, especially when behavior exists in a broader social context.
That's why, when designing the Once & For All sexual harassment prevention course, Atana intentionally shifted the focus away from egregious misconduct and toward a far more common, relatable behavior: maintaining professional boundaries around topics that are sexual in nature.
Comments, jokes, references, images, and innuendos that are sexual in nature show up at work more often than many people realize. In our research, every participant reported having seen or heard something sexual in nature at work at some point in their career, and most had encountered it recently.
Sexual harassment itself is less frequent—but it does not appear out of nowhere.
In our research, every participant reported having seen or heard something sexual in nature at work at some point in their career, and most had encountered it recently.
What we consistently see is this:
Crossing professional boundaries is common long before behavior rises to the level of harassment.
And that’s exactly where prevention has the most leverage.
What we consistently see is this:
Crossing professional boundaries is common long before behavior rises to the level of harassment.
And that’s exactly where prevention has the most leverage.
Maintaining professional boundaries is simply about recognizing that clear, shared standards around what belongs at work create a buffer that protects people, teams, and organizations before lines are crossed.
How Focusing on Boundaries Changes the Learning Experience
Targeting professional boundaries addresses the core training challenge of ensuring learners find the content relevant.
Most learners can see themselves in boundary-related scenarios—whether as a participant, a bystander, or someone navigating humor and social connection at work. The behavior is recognizable. The situations feel real. And importantly, the behavior is within reach of every employee.
This shifts sexual harassment prevention from something that happens to other people into something everyone actively participates in.
Instead of asking, "Would you commit harassment?" (a question that naturally produces defensiveness), we ask a more practical one: "While at work, will you filter what you say and do?"
That reframing matters.
The Confidence Paradox
One of the most striking patterns in the data is what we call the "confidence paradox." Across employee, manager, and leadership roles, confidence in the ability to respond appropriately to sexual harassment is extremely high. At the same time, permissive attitudes toward sexual jokes and comments remain surprisingly common.
Many people believe maintaining professional boundaries is the right thing to do, and they feel personally capable of doing it. Yet a meaningful number also believe sexual jokes should be allowed to slide. Some in this group believe people are "too sensitive" when offended. Others worry that maintaining boundaries makes it harder to fit in. These attitudes can create a fuzzy boundary where expectations are technically understood, but inconsistently applied.
Why Co-Workers Matter More Than Policies
When we look at social support for maintaining professional boundaries, an important pattern emerges.
Support from managers and organizational leaders is relatively strong. But support from co-workers is consistently the lowest.
This matters because co-workers are the people who most directly shape day-to-day norms. They define what feels acceptable in real time and are the ones who signal whether comments are laughed off, challenged, or quietly normalized. When co-worker norms are permissive, boundaries erode even in organizations with strong policies.
Training plays a critical role here—not just by informing individuals, but by aligning expectations across teams. When maintaining professional boundaries becomes a shared standard rather than a personal preference, it becomes far easier to sustain.
When maintaining professional boundaries becomes a shared standard rather than a personal preference, it becomes far easier to sustain.
The Fence, Not Just the Ambulance
There's a well-known metaphor about a town built near a dangerous cliff. Anticipating that falls will occur, people debate whether to invest in an ambulance at the bottom or a fence at the top. In reality, the answer is both.
Sexual harassment laws, reporting mechanisms, and corrective action are essential resources at the bottom of the cliff. Maintaining professional boundaries is the preventive behavior that reduces the likelihood of people falling in the first place.
Focusing exclusively on response without strengthening prevention leaves organizations perpetually reacting to harm rather than reducing its occurrence.
Behavior That is Measurable and Actionable
Maintaining professional boundaries is not about perfection. It's about clarity, consistency, and shared expectations.
Through behavioral assessments embedded in the Once & For All training course, Atana measures not only whether people intend to maintain boundaries, but also whether the conditions exist to support that behavior, including:
- how people think about maintaining boundaries at work
- whether they feel supported
- whether standards are clear enough to act on confidently
These insights allow organizations to move beyond assumption and toward precision. Leaders can see where attitudes, social signals, or clarity are creating friction and address the right lever.
Prevention does not happen by accident. It happens when organizations invest in the behaviors that operate long before harm occurs.
Maintaining professional boundaries is one of those behaviors.
About the Author
Amanda Hagman, Ph.D., Chief Scientist: Behavioral Data Science
Dr. Hagman is an expert in behavior change and intervention science, adept at turning data into practical solutions that drive meaningful change in workplace behaviors. With a background in program evaluation and learning analytics, she uses predictive insights to foster positive behavioral outcomes on a large scale. As head of research at Atana, Dr. Hagman integrates behavioral change principles into training courses tackling common workplace issues. Her work targeting critical behavioral goals is designed to deliver concrete and lasting improvements for organizations.
