May is Mental Health Awareness Month: Don't neglect your healing in your fight for justice.

     If you are someone who has suffered humiliation through discrimination or sexual harassment at work, you may need more than a path to justice, you may also need a path to healing. A way to reset your fight or flight neurological response which is likely working overtime in response to the trauma you suffered. It is not healthy to allow this system to remain revved up for extended periods of time. It can lead you to anxiety, depression, and exhaustion making reclaiming your life difficult even if you succeed in litigation. 

    Neglecting how workplace (or personal) trauma is effecting you while at the same time enduring the stressors of litigation is a recipe for failure - whether you win your lawsuit or not. Our civil legal system allows for little outside of the recovery of money damages. Likely the wrong-doer will not be fired, you definitely will not receive an apology or a glowing letter of recommendation admitting that every nasty thing your employer accused you of, prior to termination or during litigation, was false. So, many workers can end up feeling like even a substantial money recovery is a somewhat empty victory. Arguably, some of this reaction is because the person has not addressed the emotional, psychological and neurological toll the unlawful action took on them in the first place. So, I encourage all of my clients, even those who think they are "handling everything fine" to seek out emotional and psychological support even as they are looking for the right attorney to take their case. 

Nothing in this post is an substitute for a doctor's evaluation and advice. If you are suffering from PTSD, Anxiety, Depression or exhaustion please consult your primary care provider right away. If you do not have a primary care provider you can get help at:

Medical Doctors / Clinics

Local County Doctor Clinics 

Varies Mental Health and Substance Use Resources

Specific Recommendations for people who are generally healthy, but are struggling through litigation or other acutely stressful situation: 

Emotional Freedom Technique

    I have personally found much relief from professional stress and anxiety by utilizing EFT (emotional freedom technique). EFT is a guided combination of tapping on acupuncture points, while working with a recounting of emotions related to stressful events or negative beliefs, combined with positive affirmations. That is probably a gross over simplification, but you don't need to understand EFT for EFT to work. Not all EFT practitioners or offerings are equally effective.  One EFT guide that greatly helped me is Miranda Maher. She is located in Brooklyn, New York but thanks to zoom you can practice with her no matter where you are. She is also an experienced instructor, and offers (remote) classes, in Qigong, Neidan and Tao Meditation. 

    For more information, visit her website. Or request a free consultation with Miranda, here, or book your first 75 minute session here. As a chronically stressed out employment and public defense attorney I was amazed by how effective her version of EFT is. I had also tried a cheapo version on Daily Om which did not work and actually made me feel worse. As I relate below, when it comes to my mental health I am a firm believer in working with people live (or on zoom) and not via prerecordings or A.I. versions. However if you want a great arm workout I do like this pre-recorded 14-day program by Daily OM. 

Apps and AI

Some Apps I have personally worked with or have been recommended include:

Headspace - the very popular guided meditation App which has expanded to include music for focusing, and meditations to lull you back to sleep when you are suffering insomnia and frankly so much more than I have room to list. This app helped me meditate on a regular basis throughout the Covid Pandemic lock down and come out the other side a lot better off than I might have otherwise.

Calm - a lot like headspace but without the accents and cute cartoon characters. I like them both, but admit I used headspace a lot more often for the meditation and music and calm just for their music. 

Woebot - I have to admit this one freaks me out. Skynet anyone? I don't love the thought of sharing my emotions with the cloud. That said, though I am a fan, a lot of people don't love the thought of sharing their  emotions with a stranger they pay to listen to them either. Woebot claims to be grounded in clinical research and powered by AI, easy to talk to and fit into your life. "Your personal mental health ally that helps you get back to feeling like yourself." It is inexpensive, so not a big financial risk, but if you are really feeling depressed or anxious I recommend a live human person. 

Our mental health is an important part of who we are and it needs attention and care. Find what works for you and use it. I wish you all the best on your path to healing and justice. 

Filed under DUH: Women face more harassment in the workplace than men.

 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released data confirming what plaintiff's employment attorneys (and Human resources professionals) already knew: that not only is sexual harassment targeting women more prevalent in the workplace so are all forms of discrimination and harassment and retaliation. (read the full EEOC report here) Of the nearly 30,000 complaints filed between 2018 and 2021, 78.2% of complaints  of sexual harassment were reported by women, and women made of 62% of the 98,000 total harassments charges alleging any basis (e.g. race, national origin). Keep in mind the numbers are much more sobering as 87% of sexual harassment victims still do not report the sexual harassment they suffer in the workplace for fear of retaliation. This number is down only a few percentage points since 2016.

    The numbers on the lack of reporting of sexual harassment was originally published in a 2016 EEOC report. Now updated to focus on charges alleging sexual harassment under Title VII filed with the agency beginning in 2018, when the #MeToo movement went viral. But the 2-3% increase in reports to the EEOC  do not show the whole story. Title VII requires an employer be a certain size before the statute offers protection. This Employment lawyer bore witness to a steep rise in calls by employees suffering sexual harassment in workplaces not covered by Title VII. 

These women were emboldened by the #MeToo movement and many felt it was finally safe to raise their voices and push back agaisnt harassment and assaults in the workplace. One example was a local paralegal who, disgusted by the hypocrisy she was surrounded by at her employment law firm workplace reported and then brought suit against her Seattle employment attorney employer for long-term sexual harassment culminating in assault. That lawsuit Merrin v. Teller can be read here.

Unfortunately, as with rape cases, (see Washington State untested rape kits report) there is still scant accountability for sexual harassment in the workplace and employees must weigh the very likely risk of retaliation against their statutory right to a safe workplace free from harassment, discrimination and sexual assault. 

For more information, contact this Seattle employment lawyer by providing information here. We will contact you as soon as possible if we can be of service.

COVID-19 Does My Employer have to Accommodate my Religious Exemption to Vaccination?

Under Title VII it is best practice for, "an employer should proceed on the assumption that a request for religious accommodation is based on sincerely held religious beliefs, practices or observances," the EEOC said in its updated guidance. "However, if an employer has an objective basis for questioning either the religious nature or the sincerity of a particular belief, the employer would be justified in making a limited factual inquiry and seeking additional supporting information."

The EEOC added, "An employee who fails to cooperate with an employer's reasonable requests for verification of the sincerity or religious nature of a professed belief, practice or observance risks losing any subsequent claim that the employer improperly denied an accommodation."

The EEOC has identified the following factors that might undermine the credibility of an employee's claim:

• The employee has acted inconsistently with the professed belief. However, the EEOC said, "employees need not be scrupulous in their observance."
• The employee is seeking a "particularly desirable" accommodation that is likely to be sought for nonreligious reasons.
• The timing of the request is suspicious. For example, the employee may have recently requested the same benefit for secular reasons and been denied.
• The employer otherwise has reason to believe the accommodation is not sought for religious reasons.

While prior inconsistent conduct is relevant to determining the sincerity of an employee's beliefs, the EEOC cautioned that an employee's beliefs (and degree of adherence to such beliefs) may change over time.

"An employer should not assume that an employee is insincere simply because some of the employee's practices deviate from the commonly followed tenets of the employee's religion, or because the employee adheres to some common practices but not others," the agency said. Employers can get the EEOC accommodation request form from the EEOC here.

Employees should be reasonable and cooperative in seeking accommodation. If the requested accommodation would cost your employer more than a trivial amount of money the law could consider the accommodation unreasonable that is - even a small cost can cause the employer  "undue hardship" in religious accommodation cases. Notably be aware that costs include the risk of spreading the coronavirus and other safety hazards.

But a blanket statement about the risk of spreading the virus is not enough. When assessing risk employers should consider objective information, such as whether the employee works outdoors or indoors; works alone or in a group; or has close contact with co-workers, customers or other business partners. If they don't employees may have a valid claim for any adverse action or failure to accommodate their exemption.