As we welcome the new year, people all over the world are making an effort to scribble down changes that need to be implemented into their lives for the New Year.

What is a New Years Resolution?

A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Americas but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person makes a personal promise to do an act of self-improvement or something morally nice, such as opening doors for people, or vowing to stop cursing. This vow begins on New Year’s Day and is meant to last throughout the year.

Top 12 New Year’s Resolutions:

Lose weight Quit smoking Save money
Cut your stress Stay in touch Volunteer
Get more sleep Go back to school Quit Drinking
Travel the World Spend more time with Family Eat Better

Many welcome this upcoming year with great anticipation for new hope, new ideas, and new beginnings.  New year’s resolutions are created to solidify the positive opportunities that we have chosen to make and to better facilitate us in staying on track.

Resolutions may consist of a number of things; from weight loss to healthy eating objectives, and increased exercising to name a few.  And while all of these goals are productive targets to strive for in the upcoming year, we should keep one other thing in mind.  That is, in order to better ourselves we must not simply focus on the improvement of lifestyle alone but also refuse to accept anything that could negatively impact our health, our emotions, and our overall well-being.

Refuse to accept negativity in all areas of your life:

Your emotional and physical health depends on it. However, since a large part of our lives are spent at our jobs, I’m going to primarily address the issues surrounding our workplace such as a hostile job environment and sexual harassment.

Many people tend to brush off much of the misconduct that happens at their jobs.  When it comes to unlawful behavior, they have either ignored it or they have failed to realize that it exists.

Let’s take sexual harassment for instance.  Sexual harassment is unacceptable behavior that commonly exists in many workplaces but many employees have chosen to put up with this behavior either because they are afraid of consequences if they complain or they don’t even realize it exists.

In fact, most employees do not understand the detrimental health effects that sexual harassment has on the victim.  The person who sexually harasses his or her victim is a selfish individual, one who has made a conscious decision to violate another person as an act of manifesting power. More than likely the harasser is a repeat offender, someone who has gotten away with it once or multiple times previously; and will continue attempts to get away with the behavior in the future.

If you are being sexually harassed or if you are continually subjected to a hostile work environment, then you need to stand up to the situation and your harasser.  Despite feeling confused, frustrated, upset, angry or even guilty –which are all very genuine feelings and difficult for any victim to process, you need to realize that you are not at fault.

Whether your harasser is your supervisor, a co-worker or a customer of the company, you will want to advise him or her that the behavior is unwelcome and it needs to stop immediately.

Report the inappropriate behavior to Human Resources or someone else in charge (If you do not know who that is, check your employee handbook which should reference this information).

Record important notes such as the date, time, and the name(s) of the people whom you reported the behavior to.

Be sure to keep copies of written letters and documents pertaining to your harassment.

Employment Attorneys Representing Employees Exclusively

Our New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey sexual harassment attorneys here at the Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC are experienced employment law lawyers who have a great deal of knowledge about sexual harassment, employment discrimination, severance agreements and all facets of employment law.

You may be upset, overwhelmed and confused but having an experienced attorney who is competent in being able to professionally and insightfully handle your case is the first step in the right direction.

As 2015 comes to a close, it is necessary that we keep a positive mindset on filtering out the unfavorable elements especially when it involves the unlawful acts of your employer.

Here at the employment law firm of the Derek Smith Law Group our New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia sexual harassment attorneys can help you bring those unlawful acts to justice and ring in a prosperous beginning to your 2016.

If you have questions about sexual harassment or other employment-related misconduct, speak with a Sexual Harassment Lawyer regarding your case.  Call us at 800-807-2209 for a free consultation.