If you experience sexual harassment on the job, it’s a violation of your rights as an employee. You need to know what steps to take, which could include making a report to your employer or taking legal action.
Many of these cases run into complications when they’re just based on a word-of-mouth account. For instance, if you say that you were harassed and the alleged harasser simply denies those claims, it’s difficult for employers or the authorities to determine what really took place. This is why gathering evidence to support your case is so important.
Keep a journal of events
One thing you can do is keep a diary or a journal of events. This can simply help you track what happened, who was involved, when it took place, whether there were any witnesses and other important details. A journal helps prevent you from forgetting key facts, and you can use it to show how the interactions progressed. Perhaps they felt relatively minor at the beginning, but then became very serious over time, for example.
Other forms of evidence
But a journal of events is still just a claim that you are making, so it can help to have other types of evidence to back it up. This could include screenshots of text messages or social media messages. You may want to save drafts of email messages or keep any incriminating voicemails. It can be helpful to see if any of the interactions were caught on security cameras at the business, or to talk to witnesses who are willing to give a statement.
All these types of evidence can help you during your sexual harassment case, so be sure you know exactly what legal steps to take.