What To Do If You Have Been Sexually Harassed At Work

By Editor1SYS | February 23, 2022 0 Comments

Unfortunately, there is still quite a way to go before women can feel comfortable in the workplace and equal to their male peers. There is rampant discrimination toward women in general, and it only gets worse if they are of color or pregnant. Then, there is the ever-present threat of sexual harassment to make matters worse. 

Sexual harassment is something that many women experience and it can be very traumatic. Often, it goes unreported because women feel they may face retaliation for doing so. 

If you are unsure of what to do if you are being sexually harassed at work, we have provided this guide to help. Of course, you should talk to a lawyer who specializes in this field so check out this website once you’ve finished reading.

Make accurate records 

At some point, you will be reporting the problem to your HR department or even a lawyer. It will help your cause greatly if you have a lot of documentation about the problem. This means that you should be saving any emails, text messages, or other forms of communication which can be construed as sexual in nature. 

Try to make sure that you also make a diary that documents the times, dates, and circumstances regarding the incident. If there were witnesses then you should hopefully be able to rely on them to verify your account of the incidents. 

There are no details that are too insignificant to report and record. Make sure to be as detailed as possible. HR will need to see the patterns here and may be able to corroborate your story because of the records that you’ve kept. 

Talk to your harasser

Admittedly, talking to your harasser is not an easy thing to do. It can be very intimidating to have a confrontation like this. However, it can be very useful. 

The key to doing this is to tell your harasser that what they are doing is unacceptable. Tell them what it is they are doing specifically is making you uncomfortable and that it needs to stop immediately. In some cases, they may not even realize that what they are doing is wrong, even though they should have had some training regarding what constitutes sexual harassment. This shouldn’t excuse their behavior, but this straight talk could actually end the harassment so everybody can move on and work in peace. 

Think about moving on

There are some workplaces where sexual harassment is part and parcel of what it means to work there. In other words, the workplace, in general, is toxic. When you bring a case to a lawyer and things start proceeding, it can get even worse. 

You may want to think about changing jobs and finding a place where you can work comfortably and without being in a traumatic situation every day that you go to work. Sometimes there is no way to change a work culture that fosters the type of behavior that sexual harassers exhibit and it is best to not continue to work there.