5 Steps to Formally File a Harassment Complaint at Work

According to a statistical research and study, over fifty percent of employers in the work field has been experiencing a harassment from their colleagues and superiors. Two of the most common workplace harassments are bullying and related to sexual assaults. Other harassments involve discrimination of age, gender, race, and beliefs of an employee.

Escalating an incident report pertaining to a harasser in a workplace is often a stressful and tough choice for any employee due to the lengthy process that the management will require in solving the case. Nonetheless, here are the steps on how any person, such as an employee, can file a report and complaint to the management about being harassed in the workplace:

Step 1: Keep calm and assess. After the incident wherein you have been harassed, you should calm yourself and remember every bit of details about what happened. Assess whether who you shall trust, and where you should start to report the incident.

Step 2: Look for proofs and witnesses. Filing a formal complaint will require you to present pieces of evidence to support your claims. One strong proof is the recorded video in a closed-circuit television camera which you may ask from the security personnel. However, you can only have the records for this type of situation with the aid of a request form to access the videos. You may also need a number of people to stand as your witnesses and have them present a bullying witness statement to the management.

Step 3: Determine the type of complaint. You should determine what sort of complaint you are going to file and report to the management in order for them to supply the appropriate form document for you. Complaint forms will vary on what situation the complainant has experienced. An example is a sexual harassment complaint form to be used in a situation where a harasser has sexually harassed you in the workplace.

Step 4: Complete the complaint form. Fill in every blank space in the employee complaint form provided to you by the management with information about your situation. You should state your name, the details of the person who harassed you or the harasser, the description of the incident, the names of the possible witnesses, and affix your signature on the oath or statement at the bottom of the form.

Step 5: File the complaint form with the evidence. Attach the pieces of evidence that you were able to collect which includes the printed images from the videos, and the witness statement together with the complaint form. However, before submitting these, make sure that the records which you acquired were correct and were not tampered by anyone.

As soon as you have filed the complaint and have done your part to protect your rights, it will be the exact time for you to place your trust in the company that they will handle and promote equal rights to their employees. An investigation must start after the filing of the form and a resolution must be presented before another case will be reported.