I experienced the worst sexual harassment and treatment from my employer last year, I filed with the EEOC and the state agency June 2022, due to my company ignoring my multiple sexual harassment complaints to management, HR and corporate, which resulted in me being fired in retaliation for defending myself against my harasser.
You wanna know what their reasoning was? I engaged in misconduct because I “verbally threatened” the person that had sexually harassed me for months, after they threatened to attack me with an object, making comments about my private parts, asking to see my ass in front of other people and other disgusting remarks, I informed management multiple times and they did absolutely nothing all the while keeping them in close proximity to me. Then came the sham investigation, HR says “you were wrong too” and “well we actually fired both of you so”
I was able to secure a lawyer on contingency so I don’t have to do much of the heavy lifting, but the aftermath and the trauma is long lasting, I got their position statement/response, and you probably wouldn’t be surprised that they denied everything even though I made all my reports in writing and verifiable calls to cooperate. It’s a tough journey and every job I’ve had since then I always fear speaking out even for the smallest thing, I think about this everyday and have for the last year. I am definitely not the same person I was after this.
Your co workers are not your friends and HR is definitely not there to protect you. Every single manager there lied and said I never make any complaints to them even HR. It’s really stupid on their part to deny everything when I have proof. Good luck to all dealing with this and I hope you get justice, I could care less about any money that comes out of this, I just don’t want the next person to have to go through what I did, I enjoyed my job I just wanted them to make him stop and they refused to do so. I would go home and cry after work and dread coming back, I feel like a special piece of myself is lost forever, and realizing that people truly couldn’t care less about you is eye opening… don’t ever give up! I know this was long but I just have all this anger and pain inside me that doesn’t seem like it’ll ever go away.. I hope my story gives you strength