How To Safely Report Workplace Harassment

If you’re experiencing harassment in the workplace, you may not know how to safely respond. You need the harassment to stop but don’t want to place yourself in more danger or risk your professional reputation. Below, our experienced workplace harassment attorneys from Kent Pincin Law discuss how to safely report workplace harassment. 

Understanding What Constitutes Workplace Harassment

Before navigating harassment reporting protocols, you must understand what falls under the umbrella of workplace harassment. In some cases, employees experience harassment without realizing it. Workplace harassment includes any physical or verbal behavior that offends, harms, upsets, or insults another person. 

Workplace harassment can be illegal on state and federal levels, so understanding which actions are and are not acceptable is vital. In most cases, workplace harassment includes any unwanted or inappropriate behavior, including the following:

• Verbal harassment: Saying unwanted comments, abusive words, or slurs toward someone based on age, gender, disability, race, sexual orientation, or other characteristics
• Psychological harassment: Undermining someone’s dignity, self-confidence, reputation, or privacy through verbal or non-verbal acts 
• Cyberbullying: Harming someone through digital means, such as email, text messages, social media, phone calls, etc. 
• Physical harassment: Verbal threats, physical violence, inappropriate physical contact, and more
• Sexual harassment: Any unwanted or pressured sexual advances, requests or threats for sexual favors, or inappropriate actions of a sexual nature

Why You Must Report Workplace Harassment

If any of the above rings true for your scenario, you must learn how to safely report workplace harassment. Reporting workplace harassment safely protects you from further harm, prevents the perpetrator from continuing their actions on others, and can preserve your professional reputation in cases where the perpetrator is an upper-level manager. 

How To Safely Report Workplace Harassment

Navigating harassment complaints can feel highly overwhelming, but doing so will protect you from further abuse. For safe and confidential harassment reporting, we recommend the following steps:

1. Attempt To Resolve the Concern With the Perpetrator (When Appropriate)

In some scenarios, the perpetrator may be ignorant of the harm they’re causing you. If you feel like you’re in a safe enough position to speak to them about their actions, you may ask them directly to change their behavior. Again, this scenario would not apply when you’re in physical danger or if the perpetrator is aware of how they’re harming you. 

If the perpetrator refuses to change their actions, you can immediately move on to the next step. If you wish to stick with anonymous harassment reporting, you may skip this entirely. 

2. Bring the Issue to Your Supervisor

The first thing you must do is bring the issue to your direct supervisor. Your supervisor will be legally obligated to create a written complaint and report the incident of harassment to upper management. If your supervisor shrugs off the complaint or attempts to undermine your concern, you will need to escalate further. 

3. Speak With HR

Regardless of how the interaction with your supervisor went, you should also speak with your HR representative to ensure you’ve covered each base. You must provide the HR department with all relevant details of the incident, including who was involved and what occurred. If you had issues bringing the concern to your supervisor or if your supervisor failed to conduct any retaliation, you may inform HR of this now. 

Your human resources department will move the case forward based on the company’s retaliation and compliance practices. 

4. Contact the EEOC

If you learn that HR resolved your case but your harassment has continued, you will need to escalate further. Your next step will be contacting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). You can inform your HR department in advance that you plan on submitting an EEOC case so they’re prepared to be contacted by the organization. 

When you submit a workplace harassment complaint to the EEOC, the committee will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the right course of action. If the EEOC determines that a law was violated, they will try to reach a settlement with your employer, or the case will go to court. EEOC complaints allow you to seek additional representation when your HR department and supervisors undermine the severity of your scenario. 

Need Further Support? Consult a Workplace Harassment Attorney About Your Case

If you followed our steps on how to safely report workplace harassment but could not reach a resolution or experienced wrongful termination, reach out to an attorney for legal support. At Kent Pincin Law, our workplace harassment lawyers can help you submit your EEOC complaint, gather evidence, represent your case in court, and seek compensation. Whether you’re concerned about ensuring privacy in harassment reports or suing for wrongful termination, we can help. 

Call Kent Pincin today at 310-376-0922 to discuss your case.