Workers' rights lawyer breaks down the right steps to take when dealing with a bully at work

People often experience bullying at their workplace from coworkers or bosses and it is sometimes not taken seriously until it leads to retaliation from either side. Speaking about the issue, Ryan, a workers' rights lawyer who goes by the username @attorneyryan on TikTok, shared a video on the platform. In his video, he spoke about what an employee needs to do in case they face bullying at work. 

He begins by saying, "Here is how to handle a bully at work." Ryan goes on to say that he is a workers' rights lawyer and explains that while bullying is not illegal by itself, harassment and a hostile work environment are illegal. "We are not trying to make a case or set anyone up. We are trying to make the bullying stop and protect you from illegal retaliation," he says in the video. First, he asks the employee to send an email to HR or their boss and inform them that they are being harassed. He continues, "It's severe and pervasive and it's creating a hostile work environment and if that harassment is motivated by your race, your sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, anything like that, now's a good time to call it out."

Ryan also shared a template that can be used to send an email to a boss or HR. It starts with, "Dear employer, I'm writing to report harassment I experienced from [Name] on [Date(s)]. The harassment was severe and pervasive and it was motivated by my [race/gender/disability etc.] Specifically, I experienced harassment when [briefly describe what happened]." He ends the mail by writing, "This is creating a hostile environment for me. What can the company do to help?" He also suggested that the person writing the email should keep it short, and factual and keep a copy for themselves. 

Ryan captioned the post, "Hopefully the bullying stops, but if not, you can show the company knew you needed help and did nothing or that any retaliation was motivated by your protected complaint. As always, this is general info for education and discussion only. It's not legal advice for your specific situation." People in the comments shared their own experiences. @mahaloka11 commented, "How can a person prove it is motivated by anything, like age? They just deny it. I feel this is happening to me, being pushed out and bullied but can’t prove it’s my age." @acidburst1 wrote, "I think a lot of commenters are missing the point of reaching out to HR not because they care but rather to document that they were notified with specifics and tolerated the behavior. Future."

@sashasweetheart shared, "When my manager raised a hand to hit me but didn’t, I was advised to go back and get them to hit me for real. That way the police would be called." @truedat5 said, "What if you are being harassed and bullied by your new boss and HR might be always in favor of supervisors?" @moochi&yoonji expressed, "I have had a coworker with a lot of seniority constantly harassing me at work since January. I emailed my manager about it but no response so far."

You can follow Ryan (@attorneyryan) for more content on workers' rights.