Quick Answer
If workplace sexual harassment is happening, preserve evidence in a way that protects both the record and your safety. Save original messages or images, write a dated incident timeline, identify witnesses, keep copies of reports and employer responses, and separately track any retaliation after you object, report, reject advances, or participate in an investigation.
California CRD accepts employment complaints involving harassment and retaliation and asks for specific facts, documents and witness information. Harassment based on a protected category is prohibited even in very small workplaces. Evidence preservation can help, but it should not require you to remain in an unsafe situation or break privacy, access or recording laws.
Create an Incident Log While Details Are Fresh
For each event, record the date or approximate date, time, location, who was involved, the exact words or conduct you remember, who could see or hear it, how you responded, and what happened next. If you are not certain about a word or date, mark it as approximate rather than making the note sound more precise than your memory.
Keep later edits visible. If you remember an additional detail a week later, add a dated supplement instead of silently rewriting the original note.
Preserve Digital Evidence With Context
Save emails, text messages, chat messages, direct messages, images, social posts and voicemails that you lawfully possess. Preserve the full thread where possible so sender, recipient, date and context are visible. Take screenshots if necessary, but also export or retain the original file when the platform allows it.
Do not crop away context simply because one line looks important. A reviewer may need to see what came before and after the message.
Document In-Person Conduct and Witnesses
For conduct that was not written, the timeline and witness list become especially important. Record who was nearby, what they could actually observe, and whether you told anyone soon afterward. A contemporaneous message to a friend, coworker, supervisor or family member may also help establish when you reported or described the event, depending on the facts and rules of evidence.
Do not ask a witness to match your account. Record the person’s name and contact information if you already have it and let any later investigation obtain the witness’s own version.
Keep the Internal Report and Investigation Record
Save hotline confirmations, HR emails, supervisor messages, union grievances, written complaints, interview notices and the employer’s final communication. If you report orally, make a dated note of what you said, to whom and who else was present.
If the employer asks for a written statement, keep a copy of exactly what you submit. If you later correct or add something, keep both versions and the date of the correction.
Build a Separate Retaliation Timeline
California FEHA prohibits retaliation for asserting protected rights. After a report or rejection of unwanted conduct, track changes in work assignments, shifts, supervision, access, discipline, evaluations, pay, promotion opportunities, transfer or termination. Preserve the stated reason for each change.
Later action is not automatically retaliation, and a close timeline is not proof by itself. The value of the record is that it lets a reviewer compare timing, decision-makers, explanations and the employment history.
Do Not Turn Evidence Collection Into a New Legal Risk
Preserve records you are authorized to access. Do not guess passwords, enter another person’s private account, copy broad HR or customer databases, or remove trade-secret or confidential information unrelated to your own complaint.
Use caution with recordings. California Penal Code section 632 generally prohibits intentionally recording a confidential communication without all parties’ consent. Whether a particular conversation is confidential is fact-specific, and exceptions can be complex. Do not covertly record as an evidence strategy without legal advice.
If the Conduct Includes Violence, Assault or Immediate Threats
Evidence matters, but immediate safety comes first. If you are in danger, use emergency services or another appropriate safety resource. CRD’s employment guidance separately notes that sexual harassment that rises to violence or assault may warrant law-enforcement involvement.
Preserve any police report number, medical record you choose to use, protective-order document, employer safety report or related communication, but do not delay urgent care or safety steps to complete an evidence checklist.
Prepare for CRD Intake
CRD’s complaint process asks for the specific facts, documents or other evidence, and witness names and contact information if known. Employment materials can include termination letters, written reprimands, memoranda, transfer notices, emails, texts, screenshots and grievances.
CRD currently states that an employment intake generally must be submitted within three years of the last alleged harm. Federal charges and other claims can use different deadlines, so confirm the correct forum early rather than assuming the CRD period controls everything.
Preserve the File After Employment Ends
If you lose access to work systems, preserve what you already lawfully possess and note what records existed but are no longer accessible. Keep personal contact information for relevant witnesses when you already have it. Do not attempt to re-enter a system after authorization has ended.
Maintain a simple index of your evidence so a reviewer can find the original message, the timeline entry and the employer response without searching through hundreds of unrelated files.
Bottom Line
A sexual-harassment evidence file should preserve what happened without asking you to relive it endlessly or take legal risks to collect more. Keep original messages, a factual timeline, witness information, internal reports, employer responses and a separate retaliation record. Protect your safety, preserve lawfully, and check the correct filing route and deadline early.