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Stopping Sexual Harassment: A Course of Action for Victims, with Gretchen Carlson, Journalist and Advocate, Author, Be Fierce
Have a plan
Anyone who experiences harassment in the workplace has to have a plan. In my book Be Fierce I have a twelve point plan for people, chapter four. You should just tear it right out of the book and put it in your back pocket. Because here’s is what happens to most women. They don’t have a plan. Women are socialized to work harder to get past things. We’re socialized to always be nice, not to raise any concerns or complain. And so if we’re being harassed in the workplace, we think if we only work harder and we show the person how smart we are we’ll get past this. And so we continue to beat our head against the brick wall. And guess what? The situation will never change because most likely the predator’s never going to finally see you for who you are.
And so one day that particular woman has finally had enough and she goes to complain, and here’s the problem. She doesn’t have a plan. And then you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. So now you have no evidence, you have no witnesses, you haven’t documented anything, you haven’t talked to a lawyer. And if you have a forced arbitration clause you’re going to the secret chamber.
Take four crucial steps
Having a plan is essential. If this is happening to you the first thing you need to do is document, document, document and make sure that you take this documentation home. I can’t tell you how many stories of women that I’ve spoken to did, in fact, document but they kept it at work and when they went to complain they were fired and they could not go back to their office to get their documentation. Number two, call a lawyer. Even for ten minutes, you need to get the advice of an attorney before you do anything in the workplace. Number three, you have to have witnesses. You have to find people who know what’s going on and ask them to help you.
There are twelve points that I lay out in my book but those are really the top three. I’ll add in a bonus, number four, which is, find out in your state what the laws are with regard to tape recording. Because in eleven states it’s actually a crime to tape record one party consent. So you need to find out if that’s a viable option for you.