Can you be asked to wirte a letter of resignation if you quit due to sexual harrassment?
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Can you be asked to wirte a letter of resignation if you quit due to sexual harrassment?
I am a foreigner in the US with a working visa, so fully legal. I found a job just because the person who hired me really liked me and wanted to “help me”, so he “hired me in a friendly way” (and when I say that he hired me because he liked me it means that he was interested in taking me out for dinner and so you can understand what I’m talking about). I decided to quit because of this. The guy asked me to write a resignation letter because his higher bosses didn’t know that he hired me in a friendly way so he needed a more official document.
Asked on June 16, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, California
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
You can be *asked* to write the letter--though asking you to write letter covering up that a supervisor had a romantic or sexual interest in you and hired because of this interest is itself almost certainly sexual discrimination or harassment.
Your hiring, under these circumstances, was sexual discrimination or harassment, even if it does not seem to have hurt you (or at least you don't write about negative consequences)--it's still against the law. And asking you to cover up this is more sexual harassment or discrimination. You could report this to the department of labor or consult with an employment attorney, to see if you might have some claim for compensation.
Even if you choose to not do that, you probably should not write the letter--creating a paper trail in which you lie is never a good idea.
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