Why women wait to report: a coworker once put his hand up the back of my blouse at a work happy hour and touched my bare skin. Later I found out he did similar things to 3 other women that night. None of us wanted to report him. HR had a bad reputation. And women know what often happens when you come forward: you’re the problem. You’re “difficult.” Maybe you “misread it.” Maybe you “encouraged it.” HR is there to protect the company - not employees. Then we found out he was applying to manage a department with several women. That changed everything. We talked and agreed we could not let women end up reporting to him without HR knowing what he had done. So we went. If he had not been up for that promotion, we probably wouldn't have. That is how hard it is to come forward. People come forward when they feel safe enough, or when they believe staying silent could let someone else get hurt.
