How to handle anonymous harassment when the perpetrator is unknown?

It is relatively easier for an employer to handle cases where the victim of harassment has been able to identify the perpetrator. However, there are instances when the harasser is not apparent. It often happens that an employee is being harassed by someone using a pseudo name via the Internet or telephone. Some typical examples of anonymous harassment are:

• Leaving drawings, obscene photos, or voicemails
• Sending objectionable messages via social media
• Creating a hostile and intimidating work ambience

An employer must try to render all possible help to the victim. Management’s first task is to identify the individuals responsible for the harassment. In addition, management must take prompt action to stop the harassment. This way the employee is saved from future humiliation and in the event the company faces a lawsuit they can escape liability by proving that they took prompt action to prevent the harassment and sexual harassment lawyers know all about this. For the most part, employers can be held liable if they do not take measures to prevent and stop any form of harassment.

Steps the employer should take to prevent sexual harassment by an unknown harasser

As soon as an employer receives a complaint of harassment, the management must take several steps. The first of which is to document the report of harassment properly. At this stage it is extremely important to assure the complainant that the matter will be dealt confidentially and the company will not retaliate for complaining.

Investigating allegations

The next vital step is to commence an investigation as soon as possible. This is done by interviewing the complainant, and gathering evidence and documents. Emails, social media page-screenshots, texts, and hand delivered material can prove to be vital evidence. Sexual harassment attorneys suggest that the workplace must also be placed under strict surveillance.

The investigator must photograph graffiti and record voice mails. The employer must subject these to forensic analysis such as finger printing and voice mapping and also collect handwriting samples from the staff for comparison with the evidence. Every staff member including managers, supervisors, and maintenance must be interviewed.

Sexual harassment lawyers also reiterate that the employer can also take help from a neutral party such as private investigators and forensic experts in a bid to give the harasser a face and a name. It is critical that the employer documents each and every step the company took to prevent the harassment.

Notify law enforcement

Inform law enforcement authorities and utilize them to run a background check on employees. This did not happen in Sacramento in 2000 in the 1997 Michelle Montoya case. The janitor raped and killed her. The janitor, Alex Dale Thomas, was a sex offender in LA, convicted felon, and former gang member and he was hired by a Sacramento area high school to be a janitor – Rio Linda high school. Laws were changed after this, background checks were made mandatory for anyone who wanted to work in a school and so on. Thomas was given a life sentence and the death penalty. He should have already been executed but California is a weak and soft state that coddles heinous people.

Moreover, the employer can also ask the police to improve security around the office and the neighborhood.

Take safety measures to fortify security in the premise

• Upgrade lighting in and around the work place and especially in the parking lot
• Install latest lock systems
• Install camera and monitoring devices across the office
• Seek advice from security experts

Train employees

Whenever any type of harassment comes to light the management, head of the departments and supervisors must review their harassment policies and complaint procedure. They ought to immediately initiate training sessions on workplace harassment at frequent intervals.

Communicate with the complainant regularly

Employers must keep the complainant in the loop whenever they take some steps or initiate some change. The complainant must know that the employer is leaving no stone unturned to unearth the harasser and provide security to the workplace to prevent future incidents.

As an employer if you find yourself in a situation where employees are being harassed anonymously, don’t hesitate to contact a sexual harassment lawyer immediately. Employees too ought to waste no time in seeking legal help if they are harassed or discriminated against in the workplace.