Working in banking, often regarded as a profession of high standards and etiquette, should not mean enduring unwelcome advances, crude jokes, or quid pro quo harassment. Unfortunately, many employees in this field face exactly these situations. A culture of silence and intimidation, whether in the boardroom or on the trading floor, can sometimes allow a hostile work environment to thrive and leave victims feeling powerless and trapped. These individuals are at a crossroads where they are against the might of institutions and complicated legal systems that require an aggressive voice to defend them and bring their attackers to justice.

Sexual harassment attorneys can guide you through the challenging process in case you have been sexually harassed in the financial sector. The San Diego team at Empower Sexual Harassment Attorneys knows how the employment law works within the banking field and will vigorously protect your rights. Do not remain silent. Call us today for a confidential consultation and take the first step towards regaining your dignity and career. But first, let us look at what sexual harassment entails and what you can do to address it.

Understanding Coercive and Subtle Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment in high-stakes fields like banking continues to be more than overt and blatant. It may be in the form of coercive and subtle misconduct, intended to intimidate and dominate without explicit threats. Identifying these more subtle types is important to understanding what makes a hostile work environment.

Coercive “Requests”

A harasser in the workplace setting may not explicitly command you to do something, but may make an implied threat to your career by making what appear to be veiled or coercive requests. A boss may propose a weekend retreat to negotiate a deal or ask you to dinner repeatedly to work out a plan.

Although these requests may sound professional, they are often associated with your professional development. You may feel compelled to do so because you think that saying no to the request will lead to unfavorable career outcomes, like:

  • Being overlooked for a promotion
  • Deprived of an important client
  • Receiving a negative performance rating

This is a subtle yet powerful form of quid pro quo harassment.

Exclusionary Behavior

Sexual harassment is not actually limited to unwanted advances but includes professional exclusion as well. In the male-dominated field of finance, a hostile working atmosphere can be created by deliberately not including someone in important networking events or even team-building exercises.

For example, a supervisor or team may always plan male-only outings to golf, poker games, or after-hours events where key business decisions are made.

When you are systematically locked out of these activities due to your gender, you are denied opportunities to build relationships and access important information that your male counterparts receive. This is not overtly sexual but instead produces an intimidating and discriminatory environment, which is unlawful according to California law.

Client Misconduct

Another challenging case is when the harasser is not a peer or manager but a valuable client. Banks tend not to risk losing a profitable business relationship, and the management might want you to deal with it to ensure that the company’s interests are not compromised. However, under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), your employer is legally obligated to safeguard you against third-party harassment, including clients.

When a client sends you sexually explicit comments, inappropriate messages, or unwanted touching, your bank has a statutory obligation to promptly and effectively put an end to the practice. If management fails to act and expects you to tolerate the harassment, they can be held liable. You should never be forced to endure misconduct for the sake of a client relationship.

Your Legal Protections Under FEHA

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is an effective legal measure to offset the power disparity in the working environment. It gives you a wide range of protection against harassment. It is enforced by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), and provides substantial legal remedies.

The scope of FEHA is extensive and safeguards you against any type of harassment in any workplace. Contrary to a few federal laws, where there are minimum employee requirements to qualify as a recipient of certain protections, FEHA harassment protections apply to all employers that employ one or more employees. Even small or privately owned businesses are as liable as large corporations. This broad scope will guarantee that you, no matter how big your employer is, will not be exposed to illegal harassment. This is one of the main reasons why FEHA is viewed as one of the most detailed anti-harassment laws in the USA.

The ability to make individual supervisors and coworkers personally liable due to their own harassing behavior is one of the key and unique aspects of FEHA. Although an employer has a nearly irrevocable duty to bear the liability of harassment carried out by a supervisor, you may also directly sue the individual who harasses you.

This stands out as a big contrast to most other employment laws and is a strong deterrent. It sends a strong signal that the supervisors and colleagues who harass other employees cannot take shelter under the legal umbrella of the company to have their way. They will face personal financial and legal consequences for their actions. This is in place to ensure that the responsibility for their conduct is directly placed on them, instead of forcing the employer to be the sole person held responsible.

California law imposes an affirmative duty on employers to make all reasonable efforts to ensure that no harassment takes place. This is not a recommendation but a mandatory legal requirement. To carry out this obligation, employers must:

  • Have a written anti-harassment policy — It must be provided to every employee, and it should explicitly state what kind of conduct is prohibited, a confidential complaint procedure, and that the employer will not punish anyone who complains about harassment.
  • Mandatory sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training — Employers with five or more workers must give mandatory sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training to supervisors and those employees who do not have the supervisor position. Training must last at least two hours for supervisors and one hour for non-supervisory employees. This training should be done within six months of hiring or promotion and every two years after that.

These preventive actions are meant not only to inform employees about what harassment is, but also to ensure a clear reporting line so that your grievances are attended to as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Building a Sexual Harassment Case

The evidence gathering in a sexual harassment case should be carefully done to create a solid case. Though the legal burden of proof is on you, the plaintiff, creating a detailed record can significantly strengthen your case. This process is a practical exercise in documentation, transforming your private experiences into a compelling legal narrative.

The Contemporaneous Journal

A personal, contemporary journal is the most significant piece of evidence that you can construct. It is an actual log, which is written as close as possible to the time of each event and stored somewhere safe that none of your employers can access, like a personal notebook or an app that requires a password on your phone. The trick is not to use emotional language, but to be factual and specific. In each of the incidents, you are expected to note:

  • The day, time, and place of the incident
  • The names of everyone involved, the harasser, and any possible witnesses
  • Information on what was said or done in a detailed, objective manner — Record key phrases as accurately as possible, quoting or paraphrasing them. Describe actions precisely
  • Your initial response to the incident.
  • How the incident affected you, including the impact it had on your capacity to work, your emotional state, or physical symptoms experienced

The strength of a contemporaneous journal is that it is hard to have the other side claim that you have a faulty recollection or are falsifying information after the fact.

The Digital Trail

Numerous harassment cases have a digital footprint, which you need to keep. These electronic communications may have been some of the most convincing evidence in your case. You must now take instant measures to rescue and preserve them.

  • Email — If you receive an inappropriate or harassing email on your work account, you should forward it to a personal email account as soon as possible to retain a copy, even if your employer restricts your access.
  • Messaging platforms — Sites like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Bloomberg terminals capture screenshots of any harassing messages. A screenshot is a record of the entire conversation message with dates and times, and is hard for the employer to manipulate or erase from their end without raising suspicion. Record the whole conversation to put it into perspective.
  • Text messages — Text messages are also good evidence. Record the entire chat conversation in screenshots, ensuring the sender’s date, time, and contact details are easily understood. You might want to export the whole thread to a searchable PDF file using a third-party application if you receive significant messages.

It is important to realize that tampering with or destroying any of this evidence can be disastrous to your case. The aim is to maintain the originality of the original communication.

The Human Element

Other than the documents, witnesses can offer significant corroborating evidence. One of the major aspects of building your case is identifying and tracking possible witnesses.

  • Who was there? — Note in your journal entries anyone who happened to be at the scene of the harassing incident or was present right after it.
  • What did they see or hear? — Attempt to remember what they responded to or what they might have noticed.
  • Identify former employees — The former employees who have switched companies are the most valuable witnesses. They are not directly hired by the company anymore, and they are often less fearful of retaliation and more willing to speak candidly when it comes to sharing information about what they know.

Although you must not coerce anybody to act as a witness, their contacts and other details could prove invaluable to your legal staff. Your counsel can contact them and evaluate the quality of their testimony, making what seemed like an individual, personal experience into a verifiably recurrent pattern of conduct.

Understanding Your Reporting Options for Sexual Harassment

Formal reporting is a prudent move that may considerably influence the resolution of your sexual harassment case. You have two principal directions:

  • To report to your employer’s Human Resources (HR) department,
  • To make a formal complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD)

There are unique advantages and disadvantages to every route.

The HR Route

A standard company policy is to report to your employer’s HR department first if you are sexually harassed. This is a crucial way for the employer to deal with the matter internally and mitigate potential liability.

Some of the common advantages of reporting to HR include:

  • Possibility of rapid recovery — If the company takes your complaint seriously and the harasser’s behaviour is evident, HR can initiate an investigation and take immediate measures, including reassigning or firing the harasser or training them.
  • Fulfils legal obligation — Reporting internally places the company on notice, which satisfies your obligation to allow them to rectify the action. This is a crucial step before litigation.
  • Informal resolution — You might have a chance to make a personal agreement or settlement with the company without a formal legal process.

Despite the advantages, this process has its downsides, which include:

  • Threat of bias investigation — The key responsibility of HR is not to you, but to the company. They are responsible for defending the company’s interests, which may result in an investigation that may not be completely neutral.
  • Tipping the harasser — When you report, the harasser is likely to be informed about the investigation and consequently may take action against you or even eliminate any evidence.
  • Risks of retaliation — Although retaliation is unlawful under FEHA, it may still be done covertly by being denied a promotion, receiving a negative performance evaluation, or even being shunned by other employees.

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) Route

The state agency that regulates civil rights laws, like FEHA, is the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). Making a complaint to CRD triggers a formal process at a governmental level.

Some of the key advantages of filing a CRD complaint include:

  • Formal investigation — The CRD is a neutral third party and can require you to submit information and documents to both yourself and your employer. They did a comprehensive investigation to determine whether there was a reasonable ground to suspect that harassment had occurred.
  • Covers your right to sue — Filing a complaint with the CRD is a mandatory prerequisite to filing a lawsuit in court. It defends your rights in a lawsuit. You can file a lawsuit against the CRD, giving you the Right-to-Sue Notice.
  • There is no charge to you — There is no charge to file a complaint with CRD.

The common disadvantages of filing a CRD complaint include:

  • It can be a slower process — The CRD investigation may take many months or more than one year. This may be a disadvantage when you want to get a quick solution.
  • Less control — When you file, the CRD controls the investigation and can refuse to proceed with the case. Nevertheless, you will retain your right to sue when they dismiss the case with no verdict.

The Statute of Limitations in Sexual Harassment Cases

Knowing the statute of limitations and whether you want to report to HR or go directly to CRD is important. Legally, you have three years from the last alleged incident of harassment to submit a complaint to the CRD. This is a considerable extension compared to the federal limit of 300 days on most claims. This prolonged period allows you to think over your options, collect evidence, and take a strategic view of your next moves without being immediately rushed.

What a Successful Claim Looks Like in California

A compelling sexual harassment case might lead to the recovery of various damages and legal expenses, which aim to compensate you for the harm suffered and punish the employer for its negligence. These remedies aim at making you whole and deterring future misconduct. The common remedies include:

Economic Damages

Economic damages refer to monetary losses that you incurred due to being directly affected by the harassment. They are usually less complex to compute than other damages, since they are associated with definite numbers and records.

  • Back pay — This awards damages in lost earnings: wages, bonuses, benefits, and commissions you would have earned from when the harassment began until the verdict or settlement. This covers the cases wherein you have been forced to quit because of a hostile work environment or dismissed on a discriminatory basis.
  • Front pay — If you cannot be reinstated to your job, or if that is not a viable option, you can be awarded front pay. This will be reimbursement of lost future earnings, which will be the difference between what you would have been able to earn at your previous place of employment and what you are likely to earn when in a new position. It may also reimburse you for the loss of a future career opportunity.
  • Reinstatement — Sometimes a court may direct your employer to re-employ you at the same salary and benefits in your old job. Nonetheless, this is a less widely used solution, since it is not very feasible for you or the employer due to the hostile nature of the relationship.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages, also referred to as pain and suffering damages, are intended to reimburse you for the non-financial harm caused by the harassment. These damages may be huge because juries have been known to award substantial damages to victims.

  • Emotional distress — This compensates for the emotional and psychological harm caused by the harassment. It may encompass a vast spectrum of damage, including anxiety and depression, humiliation, shame, loss of pleasure in life, and physical manifestations of stress. You can use your contemporaneous journal entries, the case of any witness, and any record of any therapy or counseling you have had to support this claim.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are not designed to compensate you, but to punish the employer for especially outrageous behavior and discourage such in the future. They are usually granted where the employer’s conduct was malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent. The most common example is when an employer knew about the harassment and either did nothing or even concealed it. To recover punitive damages, you are supposed to demonstrate that the employer’s action exceeded mere negligence.

Attorney’s Fees and Court Costs

Among the strongest tools of FEHA is the power of a successful plaintiff to secure their reasonable attorney fees and court costs. This provision guarantees that you will be able to bring forth a claim even in cases where you may not have the financial capability to cover the lawyer’s expenses in advance. It imposes the economic cost of the lawsuit on the employer, which will induce them to settle cases of merit and deter frivolous defenses. This serves to even the playing field, and it makes sure that victims of harassment can gain access to the legal system.

Find a Sexual Harassment Attorney Near Me

Whether the harasser is a boss, coworker, or client, a bank employee must summon the courage to report wrongdoing in an environment that often protects the powerful. A successful claim will testify to the strength of the victim, the journey not only to monetary compensation but also to retribution. It confirms that actual harm occurred, entitling the victim to legal remedies and significant consequences for the employer.

This is where efficient legal representation in San Diego is required. It is about finding a lawyer and retaining an advocate who understands California law and the financial industry. Do not hesitate if you are a victim of sexual harassment. Contact Empower Sexual Harassment Attorneys today at 619-604-3027 and find out what can be done, and take the first step toward restoring your career and personal dignity.