Learn How To Protect Yourself From Sexual Harassment In The Workplace

Updated June 2026

If you are experiencing sexual harassment at work, the most important steps are to protect your safety, document what happened, preserve evidence, report the conduct through an appropriate channel when possible, and watch for retaliation. You do not need to handle the situation perfectly, but clear records can help if your employer ignores the problem, retaliates against you, or forces you out.

Sexual harassment can happen to employees of any gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, job title, industry, or level of seniority. It can involve supervisors, coworkers, customers, clients, vendors, owners, managers, or other people connected to the workplace.

Swartz Swidler represents employees in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and South Jersey in workplace sexual harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, wrongful termination, discrimination, severance, and related employment law matters.

Questions about sexual harassment at work? Call Swartz Swidler at 856.685.7420 or submit an employment law claim online.

Sexual Harassment Protection Steps at a Glance

Step	What to do	Why it matters
1. Prioritize safety	If there is immediate danger, assault, stalking, or threats, seek help right away.	Your safety comes before documentation or workplace procedure.
2. Document incidents	Write down dates, times, locations, witnesses, what was said, and what happened.	Harassment cases often depend on details, patterns, severity, and employer knowledge.
3. Save evidence	Preserve texts, emails, chats, photos, notes, HR complaints, and witness names.	Evidence can help show what happened and how the employer responded.
4. Report appropriately	Use HR, a supervisor, ethics hotline, owner, or another reporting channel when possible.	Reporting can put the employer on notice and create a record of what the employer knew.
5. Watch for retaliation	Track write-ups, schedule changes, threats, isolation, demotion, or termination after reporting.	Retaliation after reporting harassment may be a separate legal claim.

What Is Workplace Sexual Harassment?

Workplace sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct, sex-based conduct, or gender-based conduct that affects the workplace. It may involve unwanted comments, advances, touching, pressure, threats, offensive images, sexual jokes, repeated requests for dates, or job-related consequences tied to sexual conduct.

Sexual harassment often falls into two broad categories:

• Quid pro quo harassment: A job benefit or job consequence is tied to accepting or rejecting sexual conduct.
• Hostile work environment harassment: Unwelcome conduct is severe or pervasive enough to make the workplace intimidating, hostile, abusive, or offensive.

For a deeper explanation of legal claims, visit Swartz Swidler’s page for sexual harassment attorneys.

Examples of Sexual Harassment at Work

Sexual harassment can be verbal, physical, visual, digital, or implied through job pressure. It does not always happen in private, and it does not always involve physical contact.

Examples may include:

• unwanted sexual comments or jokes;
• repeated comments about an employee’s body, clothing, sex life, gender, pregnancy, or appearance;
• sexual images, pornography, memes, cartoons, or explicit messages at work;
• unwanted touching, brushing, hugging, kissing, grabbing, or blocking movement;
• repeated requests for dates after being told no;
• threats after rejecting sexual advances;
• promises of promotion, better shifts, or job security in exchange for sexual favors;
• sexual assault or attempted assault;
• stalking, monitoring, or unwanted contact outside work;
• sexual rumors or humiliation;
• gender-based insults or demeaning comments;
• harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, or sex stereotypes; or
• retaliation after reporting harassment.

Sexual harassment may also involve intimidating workplace conduct, especially when threats, pressure, isolation, humiliation, or aggressive behavior are used to silence an employee or discourage them from reporting.

What If the Harassment Includes Offensive Comments or Slurs?

Sexual harassment may overlap with other forms of hostile work environment harassment. For example, an employee may experience sexual comments together with race-based, disability-based, pregnancy-based, age-based, religious, national-origin, or LGBTQ-related harassment.

Harassment involving slurs, offensive comments, or bias-based language may support a broader hostile work environment claim depending on the severity, frequency, context, employer knowledge, and employer response.

If the workplace conduct involves race-based language, review Swartz Swidler’s guide to offensive comments and hostile work environment. If the issue involves broader bias-based treatment, review the firm’s page for workplace discrimination lawyers.

Step 1: Prioritize Your Safety

If you are in immediate danger, if there has been sexual assault, if someone is stalking you, or if threats are escalating, your first priority is safety. Consider leaving the unsafe area, contacting security, contacting law enforcement, reaching out to a trusted person, or seeking emergency help.

Employment documentation is important, but it should not come before your physical safety. If there is a serious threat, preserve evidence when you safely can, but do not put yourself at greater risk to collect proof.

Step 2: Tell the Harasser to Stop — But Only If It Is Safe

In some situations, telling the harasser clearly that the conduct is unwelcome can help. For example, if the issue involves repeated comments, jokes, messages, or requests for dates, you may feel comfortable saying or writing: “Do not make those comments to me again,” or “Do not contact me this way again.”

However, you are not required to confront someone alone if doing so feels unsafe, intimidating, or likely to make the situation worse. If the harasser is a supervisor, owner, powerful manager, threatening coworker, customer, or someone who has already escalated the conduct, it may be safer to report through HR or another appropriate channel instead.

If you do tell the person to stop, document it. Save the message or write down the date, time, location, what you said, how they responded, and whether anyone witnessed it.

Step 3: Review Your Employer’s Sexual Harassment Policy

Many employers have a handbook policy explaining how employees should report harassment. The policy may identify HR, a supervisor, an ethics hotline, a compliance department, an owner, or another reporting channel.

Review the policy if you can safely access it. Save a copy for your records. If the policy says to report to your supervisor but your supervisor is the harasser, consider reporting to HR, another manager, the supervisor’s manager, the owner, corporate compliance, or another designated reporting contact.

If your employer does not have a clear policy, a written complaint to HR, management, ownership, or another appropriate decision-maker may still help create a record.

Step 4: Make the Complaint Clear and Specific

When you report sexual harassment, try to be clear that the conduct is unwelcome and that it involves sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, gender-based harassment, or retaliation after reporting harassment. Avoid vague wording if you can.

For example, instead of only saying:

“My coworker is being inappropriate.”

It may be clearer to say:

“I am reporting sexual harassment. My coworker has made repeated sexual comments to me, sent unwanted messages, and continued after I told him to stop.”

Your complaint should include:

• who harassed you;
• what happened;
• when it happened;
• where it happened;
• who witnessed it;
• whether there are texts, emails, photos, videos, notes, or other evidence;
• whether you told the person to stop;
• how the harassment affected your work; and
• what you are asking the employer to do.

Step 5: Put Important Complaints in Writing

A written complaint can help show what the employer knew and when the employer knew it. If you make a verbal complaint, consider following up in writing to confirm what you reported.

A simple written complaint might say:

Keep a copy of your complaint outside of employer-controlled systems if you can do so lawfully. Avoid taking confidential, privileged, or sensitive company records without legal guidance.

Step 6: Document the Harassment

Documentation can be critical. Start a private timeline and update it soon after each incident while your memory is fresh.

For each incident, write down:

• the date and time;
• the location;
• who was involved;
• exact words or conduct as best you remember;
• witness names;
• whether there are messages, photos, videos, or other records;
• whether you reported it;
• how the employer responded;
• how it affected your job, schedule, assignments, health, or performance; and
• any retaliation that happened afterward.

Keep your notes at home, in a private account, or in another safe place you control. Do not store your only copy on an employer laptop, employer phone, employer email account, or employer messaging system.

Step 7: Preserve Evidence Before It Disappears

Sexual harassment evidence may include written messages, digital records, workplace documents, photos, witness information, complaint records, or changes in treatment after reporting.

If the harassment involved workplace postings, images, notes, or physical materials, photograph them when safe and lawful. Document where they appeared, when they appeared, who saw them, and whether management knew.

Step 8: Watch for Retaliation After Reporting

An employer should not punish an employee for reporting sexual harassment in good faith, rejecting sexual advances, participating in an investigation, or supporting another employee’s harassment complaint.

Retaliation after reporting harassment may include:

• termination;
• demotion;
• sudden write-ups;
• negative performance reviews;
• schedule cuts;
• worse shifts;
• loss of overtime or tips;
• exclusion from meetings;
• threats or intimidation;
• pressure to resign;
• being transferred away from opportunities; or
• being offered severance after reporting and asked to release claims.

If your employer punished you after you reported harassment, review Swartz Swidler’s guide on retaliation after reporting harassment. If you were fired after reporting harassment, you may have a wrongful termination or retaliation issue.

Step 9: Be Careful Before Resigning or Signing Severance

Sexual harassment can make a workplace feel impossible to stay in. But resigning or signing severance can affect your legal rights, unemployment benefits, damages, and ability to bring claims later.

Before resigning, try to document what happened, what you reported, how the employer responded, and why you believe you cannot safely remain at work. If your employer offers severance, review the agreement carefully before signing. A severance agreement may require you to release sexual harassment, retaliation, discrimination, wage, leave, or wrongful termination claims.

For more information, review Swartz Swidler’s guide to what employees should know about severance packages.

Step 10: Consider Agency Deadlines and Legal Guidance

Sexual harassment claims may involve administrative filing requirements and deadlines. Depending on the facts and where you work, an employee may need to file with the EEOC, New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, or another agency before pursuing certain claims in court.

Deadlines can be short, and different claims may have different rules. Do not wait to get guidance if the harassment is ongoing, if you were fired, if you were pressured to resign, if you received severance, or if the employer ignored your complaint.

What If HR Does Nothing?

If HR ignores your complaint, delays the investigation, blames you, minimizes the conduct, tells you to stay quiet, or allows the harassment to continue, document each response. Save emails, meeting notes, complaint confirmations, investigation updates, witness information, and any follow-up requests you made.

You may need to escalate within the company, file with an agency, or speak with an employment lawyer. The right next step depends on the facts, employer policy, safety concerns, evidence, deadlines, and whether retaliation has started.

Frequently Asked Questions About Protecting Yourself From Sexual Harassment

What should I do first if I am being sexually harassed at work?

Prioritize your safety, write down what happened, save evidence, review the employer’s reporting policy, and consider reporting through an appropriate channel. If there are threats, assault, stalking, or retaliation, seek help quickly.

Do I have to tell the harasser to stop?

Not always. Telling the harasser to stop may help show the conduct was unwelcome, but you should not confront someone alone if it feels unsafe or likely to escalate. Reporting to HR, management, ownership, or another appropriate channel may be safer.

Should I report sexual harassment in writing?

When possible, yes. A written complaint can help show what the employer knew, when it knew, and what it did in response. Keep a copy of your complaint and any response.

What evidence should I save?

Save texts, emails, messages, photos, notes, HR complaints, witness names, performance reviews, schedules, write-ups, termination records, severance agreements, and a timeline of incidents.

Can my employer retaliate if I report sexual harassment?

An employer should not punish an employee for making a good-faith harassment complaint, rejecting sexual advances, participating in an investigation, or supporting another employee’s complaint. Retaliation may be a separate legal claim.

What if the harasser is my supervisor?

If the harasser is your supervisor, review the employer’s reporting policy and consider reporting to HR, the supervisor’s manager, ownership, corporate compliance, or another designated channel. If you are unsure what to do, legal guidance may help.

What if HR ignores my sexual harassment complaint?

Document HR’s response, save follow-up messages, preserve evidence, and consider whether agency filing or legal guidance is needed. Ignoring a complaint may matter if harassment continues or retaliation occurs.

Should I quit if I am being sexually harassed?

Do not assume quitting is the safest legal step. If possible, document the harassment, report it appropriately, preserve evidence, and speak with an employment lawyer before resigning.

Talk to a Sexual Harassment Lawyer

If you are experiencing sexual harassment at work, Swartz Swidler can help you understand what evidence matters, how retaliation may affect your claim, and what steps may help protect your rights. You do not need to know exactly what legal claim you have before asking for help.

This page is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Sexual harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, discrimination, wrongful termination, severance, agency filing, and workplace intimidation claims depend on the facts, timing, evidence, employer knowledge, applicable law, deadlines, and where the claim is filed.