As a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, one of the most important things you can do is notify your employer of the harassment.
Employers often rely upon two defenses to sexual harassment claims: 1) they were not aware of the harassment, and 2) they had and enforced an anti-sexual harassment policy and the complaining employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of that policy. Notifying your employer of the harassment, particularly if done so in writing, can defeat these two defenses.
If you have been provided an employee handbook, review it and do exactly what it requires for reporting sexual harassment. If an employer does not have a handbook, then there may be posters or other signs in the workplace that identify the procedure for reporting sexual harassment. If your employer does not have a specific procedure for reporting sexual harassment, then you should notify a supervisor, manager, owner, HR representative, or other overseer of the harassing conduct.
It is best to notify your employer in writing. This can be done through an e-mail, text message, typed letter, or hand-written statement. Make sure to keep a copy for your records. To be complete, the notification should:
- Identify the harasser
- State when and where the conduct occurred
- Describe the conduct
- Declare that you consider the conduct to be sexual harassment
If you have been sexually harassed at work, contact The Moore Law Firm. We have represented numerous victims of sexual harassment over the years and are fully equipped to take on the biggest companies.