Despite recent efforts in prevention, sexual harassment continues to be a problem in the land of bourbon and horses. It can have serious implications for workers, too. Far too often, those who work in the healthcare and retail industries are subjected to not only sexual harassment, but also negative employment actions that follow reporting of the inappropriate behavior. If this has happened to you or you’re anticipating it happening to you, then you need to be prepared to take legal action.
Building your sexual harassment claim
There are certain things that you can do to better ensure that your sexual harassment case is well positioned for success. Here are a few of them:
- Make notes: Sexual harassment can be so frequent that it blurs together and is hard to differentiate. By making notes every time that you’re subjected to sexual harassment, you can ensure that you can indicate when, where, and how many times you’ve been subjected to harassment. Be sure to notate exactly what occurred, too, and who else saw it.
- Gather information: If there were witnesses to the harassment, then be sure to gather their contact information. You might need them later on.
- Retain communications: Remember, sexual harassment is only actionable against your employer if it took a negative employment action against you after you reported the harassing behavior. Therefore, you’ll want to report the harassment to your employer and track what they’ve done to correct the situation. This means documenting as much as you can in writing and retaining all correspondences.
- Be prepared to defend yourself: In a lot of these cases, employers argue that their negative employment actions were justified because the employee was simply a bad worker or always late to work. Be ready to defend yourself in this regard.
Secure the assistance you need to build a strong case
We know that it can be frightening to stand up to an employer, even a former one. But you can’t let your rights as a worker be infringed upon, especially if it led to demotion, termination, or some other negative employment action. That’s why now is the time to figure out your best course of action and how best to pursue it. An attorney who is experienced in this area of law may prove invaluable to you in that regard.