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No one expects to become the victim of sexual harassment, and they might not catch the behavior until after it becomes severe. Here’s how to recognize sexual harassment as quickly as possible so that you can address it and put a stop to it:

Notice when a coworker makes you feel uncomfortable: It doesn’t matter the context or what is actually happening. Does your coworker or manager make you feel uncomfortable? Would you prefer not to be around him or her? If you can answer yes to either of these questions, that’s enough. Be on alert for harassing and sexualized comments coming from this person.

Notice what appears to be “harmless” flirting and joking behavior: Sexual harassers often attempt to dismiss their sexualized comments or jokes about your appearance as “harmless” fun. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, this is certainly not fun (for you), and you have the right to make it stop.

Address the behavior directly: Perhaps your coworker is making lots of sexual jokes and you don’t like them. Perhaps your supervisor has asked you on dates multiple times, even though you’ve said no to each request and even stated that you will never go on a date with him or her. Whatever the behavior is, tell the person who’s doing it that it makes you feel uncomfortable and you want it to stop.

Report the harasser to the appropriate person: Most workplaces have a designated human resources person, or someone else, that the employee manual indicates is your go-to person for all concerns about sexual harassment. If your harasser refuses to stop, notify this person of the behavior, that you want it to stop and follow up your conversation in writing with an email. Save a copy of this email and all other evidence of the harassment in a safe location that is not at work.

If you can’t get the sexual harassment at your job to stop, then you may need to seek outside assistance. There are numerous government and private resources that can provide you with help. Particularly, an employment law attorney will be able to file a legal action on your behalf to assert your legal right to a safe workplace.

There are many ways that a wrongful termination can happen. Sometimes, it’s out of retaliation for the employee’s complaint about sexual harassment or discrimination. Sometimes, it happens because the employee was a whistleblower or refused to engage in illegal behavior. In still other cases, the wrongful termination might happen in violation of an employment contract. However it happens in your case, it’s important that you take immediate action.

Here’s what you can do in response to a wrongful termination:

• Talk to the human resources department at your job to determine what benefits you can receive, the exact reason for your termination and if you can appeal the decision to fire you.
• Get in touch with an employment law attorney and/or the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate the laws that regulate employment and termination of employment.
• Determine if you have been discriminated against on the basis of a protected status or if your termination was in retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment, whistleblowing, discrimination or for participating in an investigation against your company.
• File a claim for wrongful termination through the appropriate state agency or through the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC).
• Determine if you are eligible for unemployment compensation and don’t hesitate to apply for this vital financial assistance.

As a law-abiding worker in the United States, you are protected by inherent employment rights, and the unjust loss of your source of income is not something that you should have to endure. If you’ve wrongfully lost your job, you may want to consider pursuing a claim for justice in court.

People who sexually harass others sometimes do it unconsciously — it’s just a part of their personalities to bully and dominate their coworkers. Other sexual harassers do it strategically, so there aren’t any witnesses — in an attempt to cover their tracks. If you’re being sexually harassed by one of these strategic harassers, you’ll need to take extra care to gather the evidence required to build a watertight case.

When gathering evidence, it’s vital for you to understand the factors that courts look for, so you can start to build your paper trail and identify any witnesses to support your claims:

Was the conduct offensive or hostile?

Do you have evidence that shows the co-worker’s conduct elevated to the degree of hostility? Perhaps you asked for the behavior to stop and he or she kept doing it. Hostile could also mean unwanted touching and any kind of behavior specifically meant to harm you, cause you distress or upset you. Both hostile and offensive behavior could be harassment — but hostile is more severe.

Was the conduct verbal or physical?

Verbal conduct, when offensive or hostile, can constitute sexual harassment. When the conduct is physical in nature it is especially harassing. It helps to call upon witnesses or surveillance camera footage to prove physical conduct beyond he-said/she-said accounts.

How often did it happen?

Harassed employees should keep a sexual harassment log where they note the date, time, what happened, who did it and who witnessed the specific events.

What kind of hard evidence do you have? Employees should save all text messages, voicemails, emails and any other hard proof of the harassment. They should keep this evidence at home and away from their computers.

Other issues that can bolster an employee’s claim

Was the harasser a supervisor or superior? Were additional people participating in the harassment? Can you show that any reasonable person would interpret the behavior as abusive, offensive or hostile? Did the abuse happen on a regular repeated basis?

If you have a potential sexual harassment claim, start building your case now and confront your sexual harasser in court.

Workplaces in Florida and the rest of the nation are not doing their part in bringing sexual harassment to a stop. The #MeToo movement is further proof of this fact, which — if you’ve been victimized by sexual harassment — you’re already well aware of. But just how bad is sexual harassment in U.S. workplaces? The following sexual harassment statistics reveal the distressing truth:

• Forty-five percent of 28,000 harassment claims made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2015 were sex-based.
• Twenty-five to 85 percent of women have suffered from sexual harassment at their jobs.
• Seventy-five percent of sexual harassment victims suffer from retaliation following their reports and complaints about sexual harassment.
• Eighty-seven to 94 percent of sexual harassment victims never file a complaint — usually because they’re afraid of a negative employment consequence.
• The financial costs related to sexual harassment in the United States included $164.5 million of recovered money by employees who filed sexual harassment claims in 2015.

If the above statistics aren’t enough to open the eyes of American employers and inspire them to take proactive action to rid their workplaces of this abusive behavior, perhaps the only thing that will inspire change is for victims to keep speaking up and filing lawsuits when they’re abused.

When more employees say “no” to sexual harassment, and when more abusers are held responsible and accountable, the fewer instances we’ll see in our workplaces. If someone you love is being victimized like this, educate them about Florida sexual harassment laws and empower your loved one to know that the law is on the side of victims in these cases.

In some ways, subtle discrimination is worse than blatant discrimination. Subtle discrimination can be more harmful in the long term and become part of a company’s culture. Also, if you are not on the lookout for it, you may not realize it is happening to you or that you are making potentially discriminatory comments.

Subtle discrimination tends to be practiced against women, older workers, younger workers, gays and lesbians and all types of races–and many other groups of workers, really. Here are some examples.

Differing consequences for similar behavior

Black workers and white workers may experience different repercussions for behaviors such as arriving late to work or being late on deadlines. An employer may give white workers more opportunities to redeem themselves, while letting black workers go after just a warning or two. This type of discrimination can be really subtle because workers often do not know about one another’s disciplinary actions.

Not hiring someone based on interview answers or social media searches

Some jobs will do a background check on the people before they hire them, they will use something like this background check in Florida. But what they cannot do is use that information against you, unless you have a criminal record for example. A background check is simple there to protect the business. Blatant discrimination in a job interview would be asking a candidate, “Do you have children? We do not hire women who are pregnant or who have children because they always want to leave early.”

On the other hand, if a job candidate happens to mention that she has children, an employer might take her off the “under consideration” list for this reason. Likewise, an employer could search the social media profiles of female candidates but not male candidates to see if they have children. This type of discrimination can be subtle to job applicants because, obviously, they cannot read interviewers’ minds, and interviewers can keep a straight face when a candidate volunteers undesired information.

All types of personal information may fall into this category: pregnancy status, the religion you practice and the gender of the person you are married to, for example.

Promoting a certain type of person

A company may strive for inclusiveness but be proactive only on a lower level (entry-level employees, perhaps). If a company’s management tier looks overwhelmingly male and white despite the lower echelons being diverse, subtle discrimination may be at play. The managers may not even realize that they are subconsciously overlooking qualified candidates for promotion.

Gender inequality pervades American workplaces, and usually it’s the men who receive the advantages and the women who are left behind. If you’re currently working on an all-male team, and you’re the only female, you might find that your male colleagues receive more praise and promotions.

Keep reading for some advice if you’re facing unequal treatment like this as a result of your gender.

Recognize if you’re being victimized by gender bias

The first step in fighting gender inequality at your workplace is to recognize when it’s a problem. For example, many women have experienced that when they work on a team — in which no other women are present — they do not receive due credit for their contribution. Often, male colleagues receive this credit instead. This also happens when women co-author research papers with a man.

In fact, a Harvard study once showed that women do better when they work alone or on teams with other women as compared to women who work on all-male teams. This issue is often referred to as the “collaboration penalty.”

Overcoming the “collaboration penalty” of working with only men

Women can overcome the “collaboration penalty” of working with only men by being more assertive and taking credit as the representative of their teams. According to the Academy of Management Journal, when women take the initiative and assert themselves, they’re more likely to be noticed as all-star team members than when men do the same.

Research proves this interesting twist on the equation of female inequality at work. In fact, women do receive some advantages over men, but only when they break the so-called mold and act in a more aggressive or assertive way. This may not come naturally to all women, however. More poignantly, one might suggest that women should not have to act differently from their male colleagues to move forward and receive promotions in their workplaces.

Stop gender bias and gender discrimination now

Women who receive different treatment at work as a direct result of their gender may be able to fight back. The victims of gender discrimination can — in many circumstances — seek protection under state and federal employment laws.