What to Do If You’re Being Sexually Harassed at Work in Texas

If you’re being sexually harassed at work in Texas, there are six things to do, and you can start all of them this week. Write down what’s happening, with dates. Save the texts, emails, and voicemails you already have somewhere outside your work accounts. Report it in writing to HR or to someone above the person harassing you, and keep a copy. Keep doing your job the way you always have. Write down anything that changes after you report. Then talk to an employment lawyer before you quit, sign anything, or let a deadline pass.

What’s happening to you is not your fault, whether or not you were friendly to the person harassing you, and whether or not you said anything the first time. You’re also not overreacting for asking whether it counts. Texas and federal law both protect employees from sexual harassment, and you don’t have to be sure your situation crosses a legal line to start protecting yourself.

We’re Carter Law Group, a female-owned trial firm representing Texas employees in sexual harassment cases. Every attorney here is a woman, and clients regularly tell us that’s why they called. We’ve been taking these cases for over 20 years. What you do in the next few weeks matters, because it shapes both what happens at your job and how strong a case you’d have if you file one.

Is this actually sexual harassment, or am I overreacting?

Sexual harassment at work is illegal in two situations. The first is when putting up with it becomes part of keeping your job, promotion, or shift. The second is when it is serious enough, or happens often enough, that a reasonable person in your position would call the workplace hostile or abusive, and you experience it that way too. It also has to be unwelcome to you and happening because of your sex. That’s the standard the law uses.

That last piece, the part about your sex, is where people get stuck. Sexual harassment doesn’t have to be about attraction. Nobody has to want you for what’s happening to be illegal. If you’re propositioned, touched, or singled out in ways the men at your job are not, that’s because of your sex. And behavior meant to embarrass, intimidate, or belittle you because of your sex counts too, even when none of it is sexual.

Lawyers call the first situation quid pro quo harassment and the second a hostile work environment. You don’t need to know which one applies before you report it or call a lawyer.

What sexual harassment looks like at work

Most people picture a boss propositioning an employee. That happens, and so does a lot of behavior people don’t recognize as harassment at the time:

• A supervisor who keeps asking you out after you said no, or who hints your job depends on saying yes
• Comments about your body, your clothes, your sex life, or about women in general
• Texts, messages, or work chat you did not invite, including after hours
• Sexual images or videos shared where you work
• Touching, grabbing, hugging, brushing up against you, or blocking your path
• Being cornered somewhere you can’t easily leave, like a break room or a stockroom
• Being singled out, mocked, or made miserable at work because you are a woman

None of this has to happen in person. Harassment by text, work chat, email, or video call counts the same as harassment in the building. It can also happen between any two people, whatever their sex, including two people of the same sex.

Can one incident be enough?

Yes. One incident can be enough if it’s serious enough. The law asks whether the behavior was severe or whether it kept happening, and only one of those has to be true. If you were groped, propositioned by someone who controls your job, or assaulted at work, you don’t have to wait for it to happen again.

What usually does not count on its own

Not every bad day at work is illegal. A rude coworker, a short-tempered manager, or one off-color joke usually doesn’t rise to unlawful harassment by itself. The law leaves out petty slights and isolated incidents, unless the incident is extremely serious.

That exception is narrower than it sounds. And the coworker who tells you you’re too sensitive doesn’t get to decide whether this counts. The legal question is whether a reasonable person in your position would find the situation abusive, and whether you do too. Your reaction is part of the test, not a weakness in your case.

What if it has already become assault?

If you were grabbed, restrained, or assaulted at work, we believe you. You don’t have to convince us of anything before we help you work out what kind of case you have.

Workplace sexual assault can be built as a personal injury case rather than only an employment claim, and that changes what you can recover. The defendant is the employer whose conduct allowed the assault to happen, not the person who assaulted you, and personal injury claims are not subject to the damages limits that apply to employment claims. We handle these as workplace sexual assault cases for survivors across Texas. Any criminal case is separate from the civil one we would bring.

Does it matter how small my employer is?

For a sexual harassment claim under Texas law, no. An employer with a single employee is covered. Texas changed its law in 2021 so that sexual harassment is unlawful at a business of any size. If someone told you your company is too small for a case, that’s not the rule in Texas.

Step 1: Write down what’s happening, and keep the record where your company can’t reach it

Start writing it down today, and keep that record on a device your employer doesn’t control. For each incident, note the date, time, what was said or done, and who else was there. Write it while you still remember the specifics. Memories get vague fast, and specifics are what a lawyer, an investigator, or a jury can actually work with. A note that says “March 4, he said this to me in the stockroom and one coworker heard it” is worth far more than remembering a year later that it happened all the time.

Keep it on your personal phone, in your personal email, or in a notebook at home. If your access gets suspended or your job ends, you lose everything on the company laptop and in your work email, usually the same day. It is also the step that is hardest to recreate later, so start it now.

Step 2: Save the evidence you already have

You probably have more than you think. Save the texts, emails, voicemails, chat messages, and screenshots, plus any schedules showing who was working when. Write down the names of everyone who saw or heard something, even if you’re not ready to ask them anything.

There is one line to be careful about. Save what’s already yours and stop there. Your own texts and emails, messages sent to you, and your own personnel documents are fair to keep. Copying company files you wouldn’t normally have access to can create a separate legal problem for you, and it gives the company a new thing to argue about instead of what was done to you.

Step 3: Report it in writing

Report it in writing, keep a copy, and follow your company’s own complaint process if it has one.

Will the person harassing me find out it was me?

Probably, and you should plan on that rather than hope otherwise. When a company investigates, it generally has to tell the person what they’re accused of so they can respond, and people usually work out who complained. If you later file a charge with the EEOC, your employer is notified within 10 days.

Your protection here comes from the law, not from staying anonymous. Retaliation for complaining is separately illegal, and the record you started in Step 1 is what proves it if your treatment changes.

Can I wait before I report?

Yes. Steps 1 and 2 are yours alone, and nobody at work has to know you’re doing them. You can start the record, save what you have, and decide about reporting on your own timeline. Hesitating isn’t a failure. One thing to keep in mind: your filing deadline is already running, so if you’re going to wait, talk to a lawyer first and find out how much time you actually have.

Why putting it in writing matters

Until you report, your employer has an argument that it didn’t know and had no duty to act. A written complaint takes that argument away. Under Texas law, an employer that knew or should have known about sexual harassment and then fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action is breaking the law itself (Texas Labor Code Chapter 21). Immediate is the word the statute uses, which means your employer does not get to sit on your complaint and look into it whenever it gets around to it.

Use your company’s own complaint process too, if there is one. When these cases get fought later, employers argue that the employee never gave them a chance to fix the problem, and a complaint that went through the company’s own channel makes that hard to argue. Send it from an email account you’ll still have next year, and ask for written confirmation that it was received.

What if I’m afraid for my safety right now?

If you’re afraid this person is going to hurt you, that isn’t a legal strategy question. Call 911 or your local police. Put it in your written complaint too, because your employer’s duty to take immediate corrective action starts the day it knows.

What your written report should say

Keep it factual and short. You’re not writing a legal brief. You’re creating a dated record that your employer received a complaint. Include:

• What happened, in specific terms, with dates and times
• Who did it, and who else saw or heard it
• That the behavior was unwelcome to you and you want it to stop
• The change you need in order to be safe, such as not being scheduled alone with that person
• A request that the company investigate and address it
• Any earlier times you raised this, and who with

Say plainly that the behavior was unwelcome to you, because whether you welcomed it is part of the legal test. Put dates on everything, because your filing deadline generally runs from the day the harassment happened. And ask for the specific change you need. That gives your employer something concrete to do. It also means that if they schedule you alone with that person again anyway, your request is already in writing.

Step 4: Keep doing your job the way you always have

Keep doing your job as well as you always have: same work, same attendance, same deadlines. A company looking for a way to get rid of someone who complained will look for a legitimate reason to do it, and the easiest one to use is a performance problem that started right around the time you complained. If your work does slip because of what’s happening to you, say so in writing while it’s happening. A note made at the time explains the change. The same drop, explained a year later, sounds like an excuse.

Step 5: Write down anything that changes after you report

Keep a second record of everything that changes after your complaint goes in. Watch your schedule, your assignments, your system access, your reviews, and who you report to. Note the date each thing changed and who made the decision.

The reason is timing. If your employer punishes you for complaining, that’s retaliation, and it is its own claim, separate from the harassment. What usually proves retaliation is how quickly things changed after you complained, and the only way to show that is a record kept as it happens.

Step 6: Talk to an employment lawyer before you make a big decision

Talk to a lawyer before you resign, sign a severance agreement, sign anything else the company hands you, or let a deadline pass. Those decisions are hard to undo.

You don’t need to have made up your mind, and you don’t need to want to sue. Most of a first conversation is just walking through your options, and one of those options is doing nothing yet.

Does it cost anything to talk to a lawyer?

The consultation is free. When we take a sexual harassment case, we take it on contingency, which means no out-of-pocket costs for you: no consultation fee, no retainer, no hourly bills while the case is going. You pay us only if we win or settle. Not all of our work runs that way. Reviewing and negotiating a severance agreement, for example, is a flat fee of $5,000 to $10,000.

Will my employer find out that I talked to a lawyer?

Not from the conversation. What you tell a lawyer is confidential, and a lawyer can’t act without your authorization, so asking questions doesn’t set anything in motion.

Can I tell people what’s happening?

Yes. Tell the people you trust. If you signed a nondisclosure or non-disparagement agreement when you were hired, before any of this happened, it generally cannot be enforced in court to keep you quiet about sexual harassment. Note who you told and when, because those conversations can back up your account later.

Do I have to come to Dallas?

No. We represent employees across Texas and most of the work happens by phone and video, so where you live doesn’t decide whether we can take your case. Our Dallas office is open by appointment only when meeting in person helps.

What if HR does nothing, or the harasser is the person I’d report to?

You report to someone else, and if the company still does nothing, that failure becomes part of your case. Most anti-harassment policies name more than one person you can go to, so use another name on that list. If you can’t find a policy, report to any supervisor in the organization, including your harasser’s own supervisor.

And if nothing happens after you report, that is evidence too. Texas law requires an employer that knows about sexual harassment to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. A company that received your complaint and did nothing with it hasn’t met that standard.

What if they retaliate against me for reporting?

Retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment is illegal, and it’s a separate claim from the harassment itself. The law protects you for complaining to a supervisor, for taking part in an investigation, and for turning down sexual advances. Your employer cannot punish you for any of those.

Retaliation is a lot more than being fired, which is why Step 5 is to write down what changes. Here is what it usually looks like:

• A performance review that suddenly comes in lower than your work has been
• A transfer to a worse shift, territory, or role
• Schedule changes that make your life harder
• Being cut out of meetings, projects, or information you need
• Sudden scrutiny of things nobody used to check

You’re protected even if your harassment claim never wins, which most people don’t realize. The protection applies as long as you complained based on a reasonable belief that something at work broke the law, so you don’t have to be right about the law to be protected. If you’re fired for complaining, that firing is its own claim.

In our experience, retaliation is often the easier claim to prove, because it comes down to timing and documents. You complained on the 14th, your review dropped on the 21st, and the company has to explain that. Our guide to recognizing workplace retaliation goes through more of the signs, including the ones that are easy to explain away while they’re happening.

Should I quit?

If you’re asking because you can’t take another day of it, that’s a real reason and it counts. Your health and your safety come first, and we’re not going to tell you to stay in a job that’s making you sick. Talk to a lawyer before you resign anyway, because resigning changes what you can ask for later.

Quitting doesn’t automatically end your claim. If the conditions were bad enough, the law can treat your resignation as a firing. That’s called constructive discharge, and it means your employer made your working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable employee would feel compelled to resign. The bar for that is high. If you quit and you don’t meet it, you usually give up your lost wages, and lost wages are often the largest part of what a case is worth.

Most people think the choice is stay or quit, and there’s a third option. Employees leave on negotiated terms all the time: rather than handing in a resignation letter, they have a lawyer negotiate the terms of their departure first. That’s a conversation to have before you give notice, not after. And if you do resign, the clock on a constructive discharge claim starts the day you give notice, not the day of the last incident.

If you have nothing left in you today, stop here and start the record. The rest is here when you need it.

What happens after you report, and after you file?

Inside your company, this varies, and anyone who tells you exactly how it will go is guessing. Some employers investigate quickly and the behavior stops. Some interview a few people and close the file. Some do nothing at all. Whatever your employer does or doesn’t do becomes part of your case, so keep writing it down.

If you decide to go to an agency, you only file once. A charge filed with the Texas Workforce Commission is also filed with the federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC. File with the EEOC instead and it reaches the Texas agency the same way. Either way, both sets of rights are protected and you never have to file twice.

After that, the agency stage is slow, and it can go two ways. Your employer gets notified that you filed. Then you may be offered mediation, which is voluntary, and when both sides take part it usually finishes in under three months. If mediation doesn’t happen or doesn’t work, the agency investigates instead, and an investigation takes about 10 months on average. It ends one of two ways: the agency finds a violation and tries to settle it, or it sends you a notice of right to sue, which is the document that lets you take the case to court. Most people are working and going about an ordinary week the whole time.

If you get to the point of filing, you can follow the whole process in our guides on filing a sexual harassment claim in Texas and filing with the EEOC and the TWC.

How long do I have to file a sexual harassment complaint in Texas?

You get 300 days to file a sexual harassment complaint, and you should not wait anywhere near that long, because more than one clock is running. Other Texas claims get less time. If you were also retaliated against, or treated differently because you were pregnant, those claims run out at 180 days. Wait until day 200 and your harassment complaint is still fine, while the Texas state-law version of your retaliation claim is already gone.

What you’re filing	How long you have from the last incident
A sexual harassment complaint, with the EEOC or the Texas Workforce Commission	300 days
Other Texas employment discrimination claims, such as retaliation or pregnancy discrimination	180 days

The 180 days is the Texas clock. A retaliation claim can also be filed federally, where a Texas employee gets the same 300 days, so a missed state deadline does not always mean the claim is over. That is worth a phone call rather than an assumption.

Two more deadlines come later, and they’re short. Once the EEOC sends you a right-to-sue notice you have 90 days to file a lawsuit. After a Texas notice you have 60 days, with a two-year outer limit. The 90-day one is the easiest to lose track of, and filing late can bar your lawsuit for good.

What happens to my income if I lose my job?

Unemployment benefits are the first thing to look at, and being fired doesn’t by itself disqualify you. You may qualify if you were fired for a reason other than misconduct. Misconduct here means things like breaking company policy, breaking the law, or not doing your work adequately. If you quit rather than being fired, you can still qualify, but only with good cause connected with the work, and the standard is high: it has to be the kind of reason that would lead a reasonable employee to leave.

The Texas Workforce Commission decides eligibility case by case, so nobody can promise you an outcome, including us. If you’re denied, you can appeal, and a denial is worth appealing rather than treating as final. We handle unemployment benefits cases, and our walkthrough of the steps in a TWC appeal shows what the process asks of you.

I signed an arbitration agreement. Did I sign away my right to sue?

Probably not. If you signed that agreement when you were hired, before any of this happened, the decision is yours. Since March 3, 2022, federal law has let you choose whether a sexual harassment claim goes to arbitration or to court, and your employer does not get to choose for you (Public Law 117-90). Arbitration clauses are written differently from company to company, so bring yours with you when you talk to someone. Our page on arbitration agreements covers what these clauses usually say.

What can I recover?

Three kinds of money can come out of a sexual harassment case. The first is lost wages and benefits, usually the largest piece, and federal law does not cap it. The second is money for what the harassment did to you, and the third is punitive damages, which come up in some cases and not others. Those last two are capped together, and the cap is higher for larger employers. What your own case is worth depends on your facts, and our explainer on Texas damages caps in employment cases walks through how the limits work.

Questions we get from Texas employees about workplace sexual harassment

Can I record my harasser in Texas?

Texas is a one-party consent state, so you can generally record a conversation you’re part of without telling the other person (Texas Penal Code Section 16.02). Never record a conversation you’re not part of. That is a felony, and it can also get you sued. There’s a second problem to know about. Plenty of company policies ban recording even where state law allows it, and what happens to an employee who records anyway is not a settled question, so talk to a lawyer before you make a recording or plan on using one.

Do I have to report to HR before I can file a complaint?

No. You can file with the EEOC or the Texas Workforce Commission without reporting inside the company first, and if your manager is the person harassing you, you can go straight to the agency.

What if the person harassing me is a client or a contractor, not an employee?

Your employer can still be responsible. The person harassing you does not have to work there. If your employer knew, or should have known, that a client, customer, patient, or contractor in your workplace was harassing you and did nothing about it, that failure is your employer’s.

Let’s talk about what’s happening at your job

Whatever you decide about a lawyer, start writing things down today. It costs nothing, nobody has to know you’re doing it, and everything else you might decide to do later gets easier if you have it.

Our Dallas office is at 351 W. Jefferson Blvd., Suite 503, in Bishop Arts, and meetings are by appointment only. One thing to be clear about: a free consultation doesn’t by itself create an attorney-client relationship. That happens only if we both agree to work together, in writing.

So tell us what’s going on. The consultation is free, and we’d rather hear from you before you quit or sign something than after. We have tried four cases to verdict in the last two calendar years. Set up a time with us here.