Also to add to this great advice when you do have workplace harassment prevention, response training one of the things that will emphasize is that the response

Also to add to this great advice when you do have workplace harassment prevention, response training one of the things that will emphasize is that the response can't be purely up to the victim. A good training on this will help you explain this necessity to an employee in this circumstance. Basically 1. You've got the victim's back and will be carefully watching for any form of reprisals which won't be tolerated. Further you will not share any information about the specifics with the rest of the group even though you may have to address the issue generally with them. 2. But... You also have to take action as a responsible manager even if they don't want you to because you have to protect other employees from harassment by the same person. You also have a responsibility to the company to take action because not doing so can open the business up to serious liability if it happens again and you didn't do something. I think hitting a first serious hr issue like this is a part of the regular part of growing up for many startups. If you don't yet have a clear harassment policy in place, or don't have a lawyer advising you on these kind of issues, or haven't enacted any kind of regular training on harassment prevention and response there's no time like the present to get that done. ps. My company uses an online course from this company for yearly harassment prevention training. The production value is a bit cheesy, but very informative your first time through: http://www.navexglobal.com/en-us/issues/harrassment-discrimination http://www.navexglobal.com/en-us/issues/harrassment-discrimi... I'm sure there are tons of other options.