JS Tip 18: From the Harassment Workshops: Writing a Memorandum for Record

An important weapon in your fight against bullying is the Memorandum for Record. 

If you feel you’ve been bullied, put the bully on notice. Take a friend with you. Confront the bully. Tell him or her you’re not comfortable with the treatment you’ve received, and make a Memorandum for Record. 

Sit down at the word processor. Open a new document. Title the new document “Memorandum for Record” and include the date, time, details, and witnesses: 

Memorandum for Record, Friday, August 7th, 10:08 AM

This morning in the break room, I told Charlie I wasn’t comfortable with him calling me his “little sister.” I said I thought it was harassment; I asked him to stop. Mike was there as a witness.

Print the memorandum. Sign it. File it. Depending on the severity of the incident, you may want to have the memorandum notarized. This verifies the date, the time, and that you wrote the memorandum. (It doesn’t verify the event; Mike will do that.) 

Nurses have a saying: “If it wasn’t written down, it didn’t happen.” With the memorandum, you have a written record.