Sorry to hear that, I have not been in a similar position but I read career blogs and unless your safety is at risk, you might be better off handling the harasser yourself before reporting to human resources because the law isn’t strong enough to protect you from most types of retaliation, your goal should be to stop the harassment from hurting your career, and then the employee handbook becomes important when you report to human resources, which means you must follow your company’s policy precisely or you risk losing your ability to take the company to court.
And since retaliation is not usually strong enough to make it in court, it is more subtle, fewer invitations to lunch, a cubicle that isolates you from office networks, and project assignments that are boring. This sort of retaliation effectively holds back your career but because you do not have a lawsuit doesn’t mean you need to put up with harassment or retaliation. It means you should try to take things into your own hands.
Try negotiating with the person making you uncomfortable, no matter how arrogant they are, your co-worker will appreciate you attempted to handle things yourself before dragged into a ‘he said-she said’ situation before the human resources department. If your harasser is your boss, then aim high when you negotiate, ask for help to switch departments, and ask to go to a better department with a top manager cause it is in your harasser’s interest to help you.
From Penelope Trunk
"If the harasser will not negotiate with you, assess your power versus his. “Sexual harassment is more about the balance of power than what has been said,” advises Weliky.
When Kate, a high-powered New York City lawyer, was young and working with a managing director, she recalled an incident in which he asked her to “bring the papers by my hotel room, and don’t worry if I’m only wearing a towel.”
She thought the comment was ludicrous and told the whole office. “I could do that because I was on my way up in that firm, and he was doing poorly,” she said. “He didn’t have a lot of ways to make my life difficult. In fact, someone told his wife and she bawled him out in front of his co-workers.”
A great situation but you cannot always depend on your harasser’s wife for vigilante law enforcement. If the balance of power is not in your favor and you got nowhere negotiating, find a new job and leave the offending company–in that order–because it’s always easier to find a job when you have a job, even if you hate the job you have.
Leverage sexual harassment | Penelope Trunk Careers
Sexual harassment is going high-end | Penelope Trunk Careers
