Unfortunately I had to deal with a similar situation at Former Employer. I won’t go into detail except to say that the incidents involved an older male employee and much attempted touchy-feely.
I filed the complaint with our HR people.
I was told by them to document ANYTHING I saw between the older male employee and anybody else. In the meantime, I was not to have anything to do with him. I was told not to even look in his direction if we saw each other.
The investigation took, maybe, 2-3 weeks? I discovered afterward that HR interviewed anybody that had anything to do with both of us – my boss, for instance. His boss. Our respective coworkers. Even the maintenance guys.
HR discovered that the older male employee had harassed other female coworkers, all of whom were too shy to say anything. There was an incident – much more serious than originally thought – involving one of them.
That woman left the company.
The older male employee was fired.
I kept my job with no repercussions.
Just so everyone’s clear, all these things are or can be “adverse employment actions” recognized by the law. You do not have to be fired to experience “retaliation.”
Sorry, but that’s not really the case. I started my career working for a trade union (4th generation of my family to do so), and now I work in HR. Very few private companies in the UK have an active trade union presence. They’re more common in the public sector, but even so are pretty much toothless.
I’m not saying don’t join one if there is one though. They’re worth joining. I’ve sat in hearings with staff with no representation, gritting my teeth from the frustration of not being able to march them outside and say “for God’s sake, you’re hanging yourself out to dry, I’m not actually having to do anything. Go away and come back with a union rep.” It’s the “poacher turned gamekeeper” thing, I think!
Just to echo what some other people have said, and coming from someone on the inside - be wary, HR are not your friend. If we know who you are, that’s generally a bad thing. This situation could go one of two ways - either they’ve been looking for an excuse to get rid of this guy, and you just gave them it - in which case, be prepared to be dragged into a hearing, asked to give a statement, questioned, etc - or he’s popular and sucessful and they want to keep him, in which cast they will be looking to get rid of you, because you caused trouble.
Sorry if that sounds cynical. But I’ve seen too many case like this.
Oh, and if you’re in the UK, and you do get a lawyer, the chances of them being able to accompany you to any hearings or similar are slim to none.
ETA: On a personal note, though, well done to you for reporting him. Seriously.
The layoff thing is highly unlikely as well. When I had the job of keeping the “layoff list” (yeah, there was such a thing), having a complaint lodged against the firm was a sure fire way to keep yourself off the layoff list. Because, well, retaliation.
And some firms are good. The firm I work with right now I made a minor complaint, got a helpful response, a HUGE company wide policy change, and have since been promoted and feel nothing but comfortable. The complaint was made probably eight years ago, and I’m still comfortable employed three layoffs later.
I made a complaint about pay and within two months some moves appeared to be made force me out of my job. I’ll never know for sure if it was a cock-up or a conspiracy but I suspected something like that would happen before I opened my mouth and I made the complaint anyway.
My union rep is excellent and we got the heavy artillery out on my boss, seemed to do the trick…so far at least.
I have kept obsessive documentation and just tried to be strong.
Bolding mine. This one of the the best lessons I ever learned on the Dope. HR is there to protect the company, not you. They are there to shield the company from potential labor and personnel lawsuits. If there’s less risk in firing you than the manager, you’re gone.
Just to state the obvious - don’t let this incident define you at work. Continue to do your job well with a positive attitude towards everyone - including your boss, and don’t succumb to the urge to talk about it (at least while at work) with co-workers.
At the lunch, be positive - try not to appear as the biggest whiner (if you know what I mean). Stress that you just want this one situation to be resolved so you can continue doing your job which you love (you know - without being overly kiss-ass.) You may not have a lot of opportunities to interact directly w/ your boss’s boss w/out your boss involved. Try to make your superior leave the lunch thinking, “Yeah, this situation is a PITA, but that overly sure handled herself well.”
Next you have some creepy, uncomfortable discussion with your HR person, in which you are asked to detail specifically what was said and when. So yes, the advice to document like an MFer is good, because you will be asked to be detailed. Even if your boss is just generally skeevy, that won’t likely satisfy the questions you have unless you can point to specific skeeviness.
When I was talking to my HR lady, and she asked for an example, I started off with something vague like “Once after a meeting, he started hitting on me after the room cleared out.” She wanted me to define “hitting on” and asked what, to the best of my memory, did he say exactly. Remember how uncomfortable you felt when your boss sexually harassed you? Yeah, you feel gross all over again when repeating, word for word, what your boss said. You’re half reliving it, and even worse, you’re saying it out loud to another person.
I have no idea what they’ll ask your boss. Mine eventually was fired. I don’t think it was because of me entirely, but I’m sure it didn’t help his case.
In all fairness, people have varying definitions of what “hitting on you” means. In a previous job, every so often I would be talking to one of my female coworkers at a happy hour and she would say something like “don’t you have a girlfriend?” I would tell them that’s a bit presumtuous to think that I’m hitting on them simply by talking to them.
Also, “hitting on you” isn’t necessarily sexual harassment. It becomes harassment when it’s repetetive, involves unwanted touching or vulgar and unprofessional language.
You’re right, and she’s right. There are people who think every time someone makes eye contact with them that it’s flirting, so she was being perfectly reasonable when asking me what, exactly, “hitting on” meant. It is her job to determine if I’m just a precious flower who thinks everything is a sex crime, or if I’m legitimately being sexually harassed. But let me tell ya, it is really uncomfortable repeating all the creepy, gross shit your manager said to you to even people you’re close with, let alone your HR Rep. So folks, if it ever comes up, be prepared to come up with examples, and if you’re anything like me, retelling it will make you feel shitty.
Just to let everyone know what happened, the lunch went ok. Even better, though, my boss’s boss and HR apparently had a talk with him and he’s been much, much, much less threatening to everyone ever since. I’m sure that part of the reason is that he has no idea who blew the whistle.
Either way, it’s better. He’s still a jackass, but a less threatening jackass.
Odds are that he will now begin looking for another jobm so he can start the cycle over again.
Er, I mean, “get away from these false allegations and total bullshit lies that were spread about him by a couple of pussy employees who couldn’t perform up to expectations” Or whatever it is he tells himself to sleep at night.