Workplace harassment intake

Screening tool only. Harassment law is fact-specific and varies by state. This tool organizes your information and identifies general options - an employment attorney evaluates your specific situation and advises on the strongest path forward. See our full disclaimer.

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An employment attorney can advise you confidentially on reporting options, protect you from retaliation, and help you understand what evidence to gather. Many work on contingency for harassment claims, meaning no upfront cost.

When is workplace harassment illegal?

Harassment becomes illegal under federal law when it's based on a protected characteristic - sex, race, color, national origin, religion, age (40+), disability, or genetic information - and is either severe enough on its own or pervasive enough over time to create a hostile work environment, or when submission to it is made a condition of employment (quid pro quo).

A single severe incident (like a physical assault) can be enough on its own. Less severe conduct - inappropriate comments, unwanted advances, offensive jokes - typically needs to be repeated or persistent to meet the legal threshold, though there's no fixed number of incidents required. Courts look at the totality of circumstances: frequency, severity, whether it's physically threatening, and whether it interferes with your ability to do your job.

Not all unpleasant workplace conduct is illegal - general rudeness, personality conflicts, or tough management style, without a connection to a protected characteristic, generally aren't legally actionable, even though they can make work miserable. If your harassment situation led to termination, the wrongful termination screener can help assess a related claim.

Who is the employer responsible for?

Employers are typically automatically liable for harassment by supervisors that results in a tangible employment action (firing, demotion, pay cut). For supervisor harassment that doesn't result in a tangible action, employers can defend themselves by showing they had a reasonable harassment prevention and complaint process and the employee unreasonably failed to use it.

For harassment by coworkers, customers, or other non-supervisors, the employer is liable if they knew or should have known about the harassment and failed to take prompt, appropriate corrective action. This is why reporting matters - it starts the clock on the employer's legal obligation to respond, and failure to act after a report significantly strengthens a claim.

What should you document, and how?

Write down what happened as soon as possible after each incident - date, time, location, exactly what was said or done, who else was present, and how you responded. Save any physical or digital evidence: texts, emails, photos, voicemails. Note the names of anyone who witnessed the conduct or who you told about it, and when.

This contemporaneous documentation is often the single most valuable thing you can do for a potential claim - memories fade, and detailed records made close to the time of the events carry far more weight than reconstructions made months later.

Frequently asked questions

Not always, but it's usually strongly advisable and sometimes legally significant. If the harassment is from a supervisor and didn't result in a tangible job action (firing, demotion), the employer may have a legal defense if you didn't use their reporting process and it was reasonable and available to you. For harassment by coworkers, reporting is what triggers the employer's duty to investigate and correct the problem - without a report, it's harder to show the employer knew or should have known. Reporting internally doesn't waive your right to also file with the EEOC or a state agency, and in most cases you can do both. If you're uncertain whether to report internally first, an employment attorney can advise based on your specific situation.

It would be illegal for your employer to fire or otherwise retaliate against you specifically because you reported harassment or participated in an investigation - this is protected activity under federal and state anti-retaliation laws. Unfortunately, illegal retaliation does happen. If you experience any adverse action after reporting - termination, demotion, schedule changes, exclusion from meetings, sudden negative performance reviews - document it carefully and consult an attorney promptly. Retaliation claims are often easier to prove than the underlying harassment claim because the timing and connection to your report can be more directly established.

Lack of witnesses doesn't mean you don't have a claim - many harassment cases proceed and succeed based primarily on the credibility of the parties involved, supported by circumstantial evidence. Contemporaneous documentation (notes made close to when events happened), any texts or emails referencing the conduct, evidence of your emotional or physical reaction (seeking counseling, medical treatment), and evidence of a pattern (even if each individual incident had no witness) can all support a case. If you told anyone - a friend, family member, coworker - about the harassment around the time it happened, that person's account of what you told them and when can also be relevant evidence, even though they didn't witness the harassment itself.

For federal claims, you generally must file a charge with the EEOC within 180 days of the last discriminatory act, extended to 300 days if your state has its own fair employment agency (which most do). Many states also have their own agencies with parallel or sometimes longer deadlines - California's deadline, for example, is considerably longer than the federal minimum. For an ongoing hostile work environment, the clock generally runs from the most recent act, meaning earlier incidents in the same pattern can still be considered even if they individually occurred outside the window. Don't wait to consult an attorney - these deadlines are strictly enforced and missing them can permanently bar your claim.

Quid pro quo (Latin for "this for that") harassment occurs when a supervisor or someone with authority over your employment conditions your job, promotion, raise, or other benefit on submission to unwelcome sexual advances or conduct - or threatens negative consequences for refusal. Unlike hostile work environment claims, a single incident of quid pro quo harassment can be sufficient to support a claim, and it doesn't require proving the conduct was severe or pervasive over time. The key element is the connection between a tangible employment benefit or detriment and the unwelcome conduct. This is one of the more clear-cut categories of harassment claims because the exchange itself - benefit for compliance, or harm for refusal - is the legal violation.