As a woman, you may have always felt as if you have had to work harder than men for people to take you seriously. Others may consider you cold or bossy when you take charge of a situation, but you know that your attitude could significantly impact whether co-workers and superiors take you seriously in the workplace. Though your hard work did lead to what you considered to be your dream job, you may now feel that it is more of a nightmare.
The field of work you entered may have always interested you, and when you got the job you wanted, you may have felt immensely excited. However, almost immediately since starting, you felt treated unfairly by others in the workplace, and some days, you may not even feel welcome or safe at work.
Are you facing harassment?
Harassment in a Kentucky workplace can come in many forms. Though sexual harassment is certainly a prominent issue, it is important to remember that inappropriate physical touching is not the only way harassment could occur. Other ways you may have experienced harassment in the workplace include the following:
- Cyberbullying: These days, technology is everywhere, and you could face cyberbullying and digital harassment from co-workers if they post threatening or insulting comments about you on social media, send you demeaning messages or spread inappropriate photos of you.
- Verbal harassment: If someone uses you as the butt of a joke once or twice, you may not like it, but the situation may not constitute harassment. However, if a co-worker or supervisor continually makes demeaning jokes about you, insults you, uses slurs when speaking to you or speaking about you, yells at you or unreasonably criticizes you and your work, these actions may be verbal harassment.
- Psychological harassment: You may also suffer from psychological harassment if someone in the workplace constantly makes you feel bad about yourself, withholds information from you in efforts to make you look bad or takes other undermining actions to jeopardize your self-esteem and status in the workplace.
These and other forms of harassment can easily make it difficult to get out of bed to go to work. Though you wanted to love your job, others in the workplace may have made it nearly impossible. If you believe that you are the victim of workplace harassment, you may wish to go over your options for addressing the ordeal with a knowledgeable employment law attorney.