When Libby was threatened with a polygraph test, she went one step further and booked her own sexual harassment lie detector test. She was sick of them all. She wasn’t lying and if the test could help her to prove that, then that was what she would do.
It had taken everything Libby had to share the sexual harassment with her best friend Amanda. Once she told Amanda, she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. It wasn’t the same when she told her parents or one of her work colleagues. Speaking out about it seemed like a big mistake after she lost her job. In the end it was Libby who would win – eventually.
Weeks of sexual harassment in the workplace
Libby had been over the moon when she got the job, but she had never felt comfortable around her manager. She had only been in post for a week when he touched her inappropriately. It happened during a one-to-one meeting in his office.
New to the job she froze, took her hand away and carried on with the meeting. Back at her desk she tried to reason it away. It was her. She was over-analysing. She was being over sensitive. And so it had gone on.
For weeks she tried everything to get out of those one-to-one meetings with her manager. But he insisted on them each week and every time he tried it on.
New to the post, there was no-one Libby could trust. Whenever she tried to imagine the conversation, it stopped when it got to the question of how long the sexual harassment had been going on. How could she explain that she had continued to go back into his office week after week?
Libby lost her job
On the Monday morning of the fifth week, it all got too much and she could not go in. She felt like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She stayed in bed and did not ring in. The next day she did the same thing. When one of her colleagues rang to find out where she was, she ended up blurting out the whole messy story.
A week later she was out of a job. She hadn’t gone back – she couldn’t.
Her parents had been so disappointed. Without a reference it was a struggle to find work too, but it was such a relief to be free.
It was Amanda who had convinced her to seek legal advice over the sexual harassment. So she did. She’d had to tell her parents first, which didn’t go down well. They were from a generation when you didn’t ‘make a fuss’, when you ‘just got on’. She shouldn’t, they said, have given up her job.
It had been a crushing blow. On the other hand, the text message that she received from her old manager had merely fuelled her fire. It came late in the day with menacing undertones. Apparently the colleague she’d trusted had told the whole office. Bill wanted to sue Libby and he threatened her with a polygraph test, saying that he would drag her name through the mud.
The funny thing was, the mention of the test got her thinking. A couple of days after the text, Libby booked her own private, sexual harassment lie detector test for the following day.
Why………..?
When she thought about it the polygraph test sounded like the perfect way to get over that ‘why’.
Why she had gone back into that room, week after week. The lie detector test gave her time. Time to detail all that had happened.
The best thing was that she felt that she could trust the process. Totally independent, it was unbiased. There were no strings attached. She could do the test, get the results and do what she wanted with them. No-one else had the right to see them unless she wanted them to.
Best of all, it was all managed and delivered by a polygraph examiner who specialised in sexual harassment cases. After administering tests for sexual harassment cases over many years, he not only knew what he was doing, Libby also felt at ease because he had dealt with many cases like hers before. That point had won it for her and the fact that she could write the main questions herself.
Libby took the sexual harassment lie detector test
What happened next? Taking the test gave Libby the confidence that she needed. She no longer felt ashamed of what she had been through. Her parents had even gained a new respect for her. The whole experience gave her the courage to pursue legal action against her former manager.
Sometimes you simply need to be heard
If like Libby, you wonder if a lie detector test could help you, contact us or call 0203 1295594. We have experienced examiners ready to carry out specific types of tests, with carefully structured questioning. We can often book appointments within a few days, so get in touch.
From sexual contact to paternity disputes, false accusations and partner sex offender tests, speak to one of our specially trained team today. Find out how a polygraph test could help you.