Employee Survival Guide®

Workplace Harassment

• Mark Carey | Employment Lawyer & Employee Advocate • Season 7 • Episode 67

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Workplace harassment is bigger than the headlines, and it’s not limited to sexual jokes or overt discrimination. If you’ve lived through screaming, public humiliation, sabotage, relentless criticism, or being shut out of the information you need to do your job, you already know how fast a toxic workplace can wreck your confidence and your health. We talk plainly about workplace bullying, how common it is, and the uncomfortable truth that a lot of abusive behavior can still be treated as “legal” when it isn’t clearly tied to a protected class.

We walk through the most important protective steps you can take right now. First, we explain how to document harassment so it holds up later: dates, times, exact words, what happened, and who witnessed it. We also cover a critical mistake people make by keeping notes on employer devices, and why you should build your record offline. Next, we discuss internal reporting and how to use company codes of conduct to create a paper trail that proves your employer had notice.

Then we get into the human cost: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and the physical symptoms that follow chronic stress at work. We explain why seeing a doctor matters for your wellbeing and can also support evidence, potential accommodations, and disability-related issues when harassment escalates. Finally, we share why you should talk to an employee-side employment attorney before resigning or signing anything, and how claims like constructive discharge or intentional infliction of emotional distress may apply even when it’s not “classic” harassment.

If this topic hits close to home, listen, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss what employers hope you never learn. After you listen, will you leave a review and tell us what workplace behavior you wish more people would call out?

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For more information, please contact our employment attorneys at Carey & Associates, P.C. at 203-255-4150, www.capclaw.com.

Disclaimer:  For educational use only, not intended to be legal advice. 

Welcome And The Real Topic

What Harassment Really Looks Like

The Numbers And The Legal Gap

Document Everything Off Work Devices

Report In Writing For A Trail

Medical Support And Evidence Building

Lawyer Advice Accommodations And Claims

Stop Suffering And Make It End

Call Us If You Need Help

SPEAKER_00

Hey, it's Mark and welcome back to the next edition of the Employee Survival Guide, where I tell you, as always, what your employer does not want you to know about, and a lot more because, you know, I can. Today's topic: workplace harassment. It's it isn't just sexual jokes, folks. It's repeated abusive conduct that creates a hostile work environment. It's screaming, humiliation, sabotage, constant criticism, exclusion. 32% of American workers experience it. Supervirusers are the bullies 55% of the time. And here's the dirty secret: it's just not tied to protecting class, race, gender, age, disability, etc. Many courts say it's still legal. What can you do? Well, number one, you can document every single incident with dates, times, exact words, and witnesses. So you build a record for yourself. Do it offline, don't do it on a work computer, of course. You all know that right now because employers, well, it's not your computer device if you are using your employers and they own it. So do things on a separate computer. Number two, report it internally in writing, following the company policy. A lot of companies have code of conducts, but uh few people know how to use them. So use them. Report bullying to the employer. This creates a paper trail for you if you need it at a later point in time. See a doctor if your mental or physical health is suffering because of the workplace harassment. You can have anxiety, depression, panic attacks. That's all evidence. And you're building also a basis for potential disabilities discrimination claim as well. So you want to basically document your physical and mental health issues resulting from the workplace harassment. Before talk to an employee-side attorney like myself, an employment attorney, before you resign or sign anything. Maybe you need to ask for accommodations because the workplace harassment has gotten to the point where you need an accommodation and your employer is just getting over the top. We use accommodations to block employer behavior. It's a very smart tool to use. You may have claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress or constructive discharge, even if it's not the classic harassment. So things you can do to build cases that become cases and never suffer in silence thinking it's not bad enough. And I've heard this for 30 years nearly. People do suffer and they let it get worse and worse. There's no need to let your employer and their coworkers, you know, injure your health. I really have to emphasize that. You can control things and you can put a stop to bad behavior. Don't let it get to the point where you yourself are having a mental and nervous condition that's caused by your work environment you're experiencing. And 62% of bully workers will lose their jobs, and they can prove it. If you're dealing with workplace harassment right now in Connecticut or New York, call us. Contact uh capclaw.com. And as always, thank you for letting us be of service to you.