Here at the Law Office of Jim Zadeh we have represented victims of sexual harassment over 15 years. One question that is commonly asked is “should I tell my spouse that I have been sexually harassed.” There is no clear answer to that difficult question. There are a number of factors that play into considering whether or not to tell your spouse about the sexual harassment. You know your spouse better than anybody and how they may react. You should consider if your spouse has a temper; will they go to your workplace and attempt to confront the individual that did this to you? If however, you have a supportive spouse; one that will say, “I will support you in this”, “I believe in you”, “you can handle it and I’m just here to be your support”, then you might want to tell them. Other factors that go into it are when you want to maybe talk to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or counselor to figure out how to approach your spouse. Another option is talking to an attorney about your legal rights to help you determine whether or not you are going to pursue it, and whether it's even worthwhile going through all the steps. You should also know your company policy and if you have invoked the company policy, and has the company gone ahead and taken care it, have they fired the individual. If the company has taken care of the problem, then you can go back to your spouse and say that you have been sexually harassed and that you told the company and followed the company’s policies procedures, and they fired the male or female that did that to me. Hopefully your spouse will be supportive of that and won’t take any further action because of it. But it's not an easy answer. It's an answer that is very personal to you and you need to get as much advice as you can before you go ahead and make a decision.
