Disclosure company and co – worker retaliation – possible scenarios

What often stops disclosure of workplace sexual harassment is the fear of retaliation, from the company management, legal team and work colleagues.

Below are listed some possible potential scenarios that may occur if you choose to disclose the abuse, either to a work colleague or manager or company HR representative. It is important to seek legal advice, support and representation if you choose to disclose the abuse.

Company and co – worker retaliation possible scenarios;
If the perpetrator of the workplace sexual harassment is your manager, the company may choose to take his, or her side, as companies often choose to keep the employee that produces the most profit for the company. They may choose not to believe you. In this case the company can use various tactics to intimidate you.

The company may want to protect itself if they have not implemented proper policies and processes to educate and stop sexual harassment in their workplace. Co – workers may choose to not believe you, as they have not witnessed the abuse and have a good co-worker relationship with the perpetrator. Co– workers may also choose not to believe you or may choose not to support you for fear of jeopardizing their own jobs. Co- workers may also not choose to support you due to competition for positions within the company, for their own job gain advantage.

If the perpetrator of the workplace sexual harassment is your co -worker the company and your co – workers may in this case also choose to not believe you. Companies often choose to keep the employee that produces the most profit for the company. The company may want to protect itself if they have not implemented proper policies and processes to educate and stop sexual harassment in their workplace. Co – workers may choose to not believe you, as they have not witnessed the abuse and have a good co-worker relationship with the perpetrator. In both Company and employee retaliation cases the various retaliation scenarios may be as listed below;

- Try to make you feel like you are making a big deal out of nothing.
- Try to make you feel inferior.
- Try to make you feel afraid and powerless.
- Try to isolate you.
- Try to turn your work colleagues against you.
- Try to humiliate you.
- Try to imply that you are weak and you “need to toughen up”.
- Try to blame you for causing the abuse.
- Try to minimize the perpetrator’s abusive behavior.
- Try to imply that you are not mentally unstable and “sick” and thus imagined or exaggerated the abuse.
- Try to imply that the perpetrator’s behavior was due to that fact that he, or she “was in love”, or that you were the one “in love.”
- Try to imply that you just didn’t “fit into the team” and you were “not a team player”, “you were boring” or a bad fit for the team “all it takes is one bad apple.”
- Try to imply that your work for the company was sub – standard. It is important to keep copies of your manager’s performance reviews, so you can discredit this if it has not been noted in previous performance reviews.
- The company may impede the performance of your work computer, to disable your work performance.
- The company may slow your work stream jobs to make it look as if you haven’t got any work to do, thus are not a required member for the team.
- The company may delete important documentation saved on your work computer. It is important that you save and print off all of your performance reviews or any documentation pertaining to your case.
- If you have disclosed the abuse you should not have to come in to work that day, nor the following day. Your union representative, legal representative or company HR manager should advise you to stay home until further notice of the correct following procedures.
- If you have chosen to disclose the abuse you should not be asked “What would you like done about this – would you like the perpetrator fired or would you like the perpetrator to receive a warning? ” This should not be your responsibility, you will not be thinking clearly and will be stressed. The onus for what should be done about the abuse should follow on from the investigation and should sit with the legal teams involved.
- The company may use an HR mediator company employee to investigate your case and interview all of the co -workers and management involved. This is a conflict of interests, due to the fact that the HR representative is on the companie's pay-role, so will have a vested interest in protecting the company. An impartial third party representative should be employed to perform the investigation.
- The company may submit a findings report to you following their investigation, which may include un- truths from the co – workers and managers interviewed. You have the right to reply to this, if you are not given the opportunity to reply, this represents further intimidation tactics by the company.
- You have the right to mediation, to try to mediate for a solution to the sexual harassment to enable you to remain in your employment if you so wish to. If you are not given this right to mediate, proper process has not been followed.
- If a settlement has been agreed to, (if you decide you no longer wish to be employed by your company) a company reference should be included with your settlement to enable you to apply for further work opportunities. If a reference has not been supplied with your settlement, proper process has not been followed.
- If a settlement has been agreed upon the company must pay the agreed amount by the agreed date. The victim should not have to chase up for the payment, this is further intimidation by the company.

All the above scenarios are not an appropriate response to the workplace sexual harassment disclosure. The company and their legal team will be trying to protect their management team, as they understand that workplace sexual harassment is serious and will be trying to negate their own company’s blame. If the company has not had in place proper processes and procedures to educate and stop sexual harassment in their workplace and have not protected their staff they can be fined heavily.

If the correct response has not been implemented by the company and you experience retaliation you should document this, as this can be drawn on for further settlement evidence of mis- conduct and the case can be taken to the Employment Relations Authority . The Employment Relations Authority can resolve disputes about employment issues including sexual harassment if mediation has failed to resolve your complaint. The Employment Court deals with cases about employment disputes. The Employment Court also deals with challenges to Employment Relations Authority decisions.

It is important to seek legal advice, support and representation if you choose to disclose the abuse.

Disclosure community and future employment retaliation – possible scenarios

What often stops disclosure of workplace sexual harassment is the fear of retaliation, not only from the employee’s company and co -workers – but also from the community that the employee may live in. The perpetrator, co – workers or company management employees may live in the same community as the abused employee, which places the victim in a compromised and vulnerable position. The victim can be targeted for further retaliation abuse outside of the workplace experiencing further verbal “gaslighting”, in -validation and purposeful bullying and isolation.

This can also follow on into future employment, if employed within the same community area, or if the network within the victim’s particular genre of work have been told un – truths about the victim. The victim’s new employer can perpetrate abusive, in -validation, humiliation and defamatory comments about the victim to other staff members, the general public and members of the victim’s broader work community if the employer has been told mis -truths about the victim , or if the employer has chosen not to believe the victim’s claim of sexual harassment. The victim’s new employer can turn the victim’s work colleagues against them if in future employment within the same community or work genre. The victim’s new workplace employees and work colleagues can make jokes about the situation if they have heard rumors about the victim, as they may either not believe the victim or think what the victim went through is “funny”.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is not “funny” and it is not something that should be made fun of. The victims of sexual harassment should never be made fun of.

Below are listed some possible potential scenarios that may occur if you choose to disclose the abuse. It is important to consider the full consequences of disclosure and seek legal advice, support and representation if you choose to disclose the abuse. It is very important to have a strong personal support network around you, who will validate your disclosure actions and support you within your community.

Community and future work retaliation - possible scenarios;
If you live in the same community as your perpetrator, co – workers or company management employees, further abuse can ensue. Further abuse can also follow in future employment positions. The various retaliation scenarios may be as listed below;

- Sectors of the community can purposely isolate you by excluding you from social occasions or gatherings.
- If you do attend gatherings, you can be targeted with undermining comments, in -validation, intimidation, bullying abusive comments, “gaslighting” and humiliation.
- The school staff and parents of other childeren where your children attend can make humiliating and undermining comments about you in front of the other children, to further bully and isolate you.
- The shop staff where you shop can make humiliating comments about you whilst shopping in their premises.
- They can try to make you feel afraid and powerless and completely isolated.
- They can drug your drinks, kick you or try anything to make you look unstable and “unwell” or “slutty and flirty” if attending gatherings.

The below are possible examples of abusive invalidation and bullying “gaslighting” comments;
a/ “She loved him.”
b/ “She encouraged him.”
c/ “She’s flirty.”
d/ “She’s and slut.”
e/ “Let’s do her” and then laugh at you.
f/ “She’s boring”
g/ “She’s thick”
h/ “She’s dumb.”
i/ “She’s grumpy”
j/ “She needs to calm down”
k “She’s green”
l/ “Shes’ OTT”
m/ They can say “Metoo” and laugh.
n/ “She’s sick”
o/ “She’s schiz” (schizophrenic)
p/ “She’s moany”
q/ “She fits”…after being drugged at a party.
r/ They can body shame you and criticize your body and face in any way to make you feel ugly and inferior, suggesting that there was no way the perpetrator would be interested in you.
s/ “She’s plain”
t/ They can purposely constantly remind you of the sexual harassment, so that you are further abused every day and can not move on to a healthy state of mind. They can use comments like “Remind her” and “Everyday” and laugh.
u/ They can comment about the perpetrator’s wife, saying “She’s perfect “ , “She’s and 10” , “She’s beautiful”, “She won”, “ The perpetrator is lucky to have his wife.”
v/ They can say “The perpetrator won”
w/ They can purposely “gaslight” you in groups and laugh while looking at you.
x/ Your new employer can say to others “be nice” and then laugh at you together with the others.
y/ They can purposely try to in validate you with anything they can think of as a defense for the perpetrator.

All the above scenarios are purposeful bullying comments, aimed at further hurting and in - validating the victim. These are not appropriate community responses to workplace sexual harassment disclosure.

* Refer to our Blog Tab for the Women.govt.nz: Literature scan on workplace sexual harassment
• 26. Sexual harassment in the workplace does not occur in isolation. It is facilitated by communities and workplaces that tolerate such behaviour.

It is important to seek legal advice, support and representation if you choose to disclose the abuse.

It is very important to have strong personal support around you if you choose to disclose sexual harassment in the workplace.