Document WhatsApp Harassment for HR: A Step-by-Step Guide | ThreadRecap
Workplace harassment, bullying, and inappropriate behavior increasingly happen over WhatsApp. Work groups, direct messages, and after-hours texts create a record that exists on your phone but is difficult to organize, present, and preserve.
If you need to report harassment to HR, file a formal complaint, or consult with a lawyer, you need that WhatsApp record structured and preserved. This guide shows a practical workflow for doing that.
This is not legal advice. It is a practical guide for organizing WhatsApp evidence. For legal guidance specific to your situation, consult an employment lawyer.
Why WhatsApp harassment is hard to document
Messages span weeks or months. Harassment is rarely a single incident. It is a pattern. That pattern is buried in a long conversation history.
Context matters. A message that seems innocent in isolation may be part of a pattern of intimidation, exclusion, or boundary-crossing when seen in sequence.
Voice notes cannot be shown in a screenshot.** Threatening or inappropriate voice notes are common and leave no text trace unless transcribed.
Group chat dynamics are complex. Harassment in group chats involves bystanders, responses (or lack of responses), and power dynamics that only make sense in the full context.
Evidence can be deleted. The other party may delete messages. Your export preserves what existed at the time you exported.
Why deletion risk makes timing critical
WhatsApp allows senders to delete messages for all participants, and that deletion can happen at any time after a message is sent. If a harasser realizes they may face a complaint, removing incriminating messages is a real possibility. Messages deleted by a sender before you export will not appear in the exported chat history at all — they are gone from the record entirely. This is not a flaw in the export system; it is simply how WhatsApp works. The practical implication is that every day you delay is a day during which the record you need can be quietly erased. Export first, analyze later.
The scale of what you may be dealing with
A long-running workplace relationship or group chat can contain tens of thousands of messages. ThreadRecap can process WhatsApp exports containing 60,000 or more messages and ZIP files up to 2 GB, which means even a multi-year conversation history does not need to be manually trimmed before upload. Trying to scroll through 60,000 messages by hand to identify relevant incidents is not realistic. Structured analysis is the only practical approach at that scale.
Step 1: Export immediately
Do not wait. Export the relevant WhatsApp conversations as soon as you decide to document the behavior. Messages can be deleted by the sender, and you want to capture the record while it is complete.
Include media if voice notes contain relevant content (threats, inappropriate comments, coercion). The voice notes will be saved as `.opus` or `.m4a` files in the export.
Export every relevant conversation: direct messages with the harasser, group chats where incidents occurred, and any conversations with witnesses or colleagues where you discussed the behavior.
Step 2: Preserve the original files
This step is critical:
Save each `.zip` file untouched. Do not rename, unzip, or edit anything.
Email the files to yourself or a trusted person immediately. This creates a timestamped record showing when you had the evidence.
Store copies in at least two places (cloud storage, USB drive, email attachment).
Work only on copies for analysis.
If the situation escalates to legal proceedings, the original unaltered exports demonstrate that the evidence has not been tampered with.
Why the unaltered ZIP file matters
The `.zip` file produced by WhatsApp's export function has a specific internal structure and file modification timestamps that reflect the state of the conversation at the time of export. When you email that file to yourself, the email server records the date and time of receipt independently of anything you control. That combination — an unmodified file with a third-party timestamp — is a straightforward way to support the claim that you have not edited or fabricated anything after the fact. Some employers and legal processes will ask how you can prove the evidence has not been tampered with; a timestamped email with the original ZIP attached is a concrete, verifiable answer.
Create a structured incident report from this conversation. For each incident: date, time, who was involved, what was said or done, and how it relates to a pattern of harassment or inappropriate behavior. Categorize incidents as: direct harassment, intimidation, exclusion, boundary violation, retaliation, or inappropriate conduct. Note any witnesses present in the conversation. Use neutral, factual language throughout. End with: (1) a summary of the pattern, (2) frequency and escalation over time, (3) any responses from the target.
Choosing neutral, factual language
HR investigators and employment lawyers consistently advise that complaint documentation should describe behavior rather than characterize intent. A report that states "on 14 March at 09:42, [Name] sent a voice note saying 'you're completely useless and I don't know why we hired you'" is more credible and harder to dispute than one that states "on 14 March, [Name] viciously attacked my competence." The Custom Prompt above is worded to produce neutral, factual output precisely because that framing holds up better under scrutiny. If the AI output includes interpretive language that feels too strong, revise it to be more descriptive before submitting to HR.
Step 4: Generate a timeline for HR or legal
Run a second Custom Prompt with:
Create a chronological timeline of relevant events. For each entry: date, participants, what happened, and a direct excerpt from the conversation. Only include events relevant to the complaint. Organize by date. At the end, list: (1) first known incident, (2) most recent incident, (3) total number of incidents documented, (4) whether the behavior escalated over time, (5) any internal reports or requests to stop that appear in the conversation.
Step 5: Transcribe voice notes
Inappropriate or threatening voice notes are some of the most powerful evidence, but they are also the easiest to overlook because they are not text. Common scenarios:
A manager makes demeaning comments via voice note
After-hours voice messages crossing professional boundaries
Verbal threats or intimidation that the sender would never put in writing
Include media in your export. ThreadRecap transcribes voice notes and merges the transcripts into the timeline. Each transcribed voice note gets a timestamp, making it part of the documented record.
How voice note transcription works
When you export a WhatsApp chat with media included, voice notes are saved as `.opus` or `.m4a` audio files alongside the main chat text file. ThreadRecap uses OpenAI Whisper to transcribe those files, achieving approximately 95% accuracy on clear audio. The transcripts are then matched to their position in the conversation by timestamp, so the final output shows voice note content in context rather than as a separate appendix. For HR purposes, this means an investigator reading your incident report sees the voice note transcript exactly where it belongs in the sequence of events, not as an afterthought. Where audio quality is lower — background noise, strong accents, overlapping speech — accuracy will vary, and it is worth noting any uncertain transcriptions in your complaint cover letter.
What to include in your HR complaint
A well-organized harassment complaint typically includes:
Cover letter — brief statement of who you are, what is happening, and what action you are requesting
Incident report — structured list of incidents with dates, descriptions, and categories
Chronological timeline — shows the pattern and escalation over time
Supporting excerpts — direct quotes from the conversation (included in the timeline)
Voice note transcripts — for any audio-based incidents
Original export files — untouched `.zip` files as primary evidence
Any corroborating evidence — emails, photos, witness statements
Assembling the package
The cover letter is worth writing carefully. It should be no more than one page and should state: your name and role, the name and role of the person whose behavior you are reporting, the approximate date range covered by the evidence, a one-sentence summary of the nature of the behavior, what you are requesting from HR (investigation, mediation, formal disciplinary action), and a list of the attached documents. HR investigators deal with a high volume of complaints; a clearly labeled package with a concise cover letter is far more likely to be read thoroughly than a disorganized collection of screenshots with a vague covering email.
Documenting group chat harassment
Harassment in group chats has additional dimensions:
Who was present matters. Harassment in front of colleagues is more damaging and easier to corroborate.
Bystander responses (or silence) are relevant. Did anyone object? Did management see it and do nothing?
Power dynamics are visible. A manager speaking to a subordinate in front of the team reads differently than peers joking.
When generating your Custom Prompt analysis for group chats, add:
Identify the participants and their apparent roles or relative authority. Note any instances where a person in authority directed inappropriate behavior at someone with less authority. Note bystander responses or lack thereof.
Group chat analysis adds 2 credits to the base cost.
Reading the silence in group chats
One of the most significant aspects of group chat harassment that is difficult to capture in a simple screenshot collection is the absence of response. When a manager sends a demeaning message to an employee in a group of 20 colleagues and no one replies, that silence is itself meaningful. It can indicate that other employees recognized the behavior as inappropriate but felt unable to respond, or that the culture of the group normalized such exchanges. A structured analysis of the full group chat export can surface these patterns explicitly — noting, for example, that a particular type of comment from a particular participant consistently received no pushback, or that the target's own participation dropped significantly after a specific incident.
Protecting yourself during the process
Do not confront the harasser about the documentation. Prepare your evidence first, then follow your company's complaint procedure.
Do not edit or delete any messages in the conversations you are documenting, including your own.
Keep a personal copy. If you are filing with HR, they may handle it internally. Keep your own copy of everything.
Document your documentation. Note when you exported, when you created the summaries, and when you filed the complaint. This establishes your timeline of action.
Privacy considerations
Harassment documentation involves highly sensitive personal information. Consider:
ThreadRecap parses exports locally in your browser before any data is sent. Photos and videos never leave your device.
Only the text and audio you select are sent for analysis. Raw content is not stored after processing.
You control what is included. You can exclude portions that are not relevant to the complaint.
Recording and presenting communications as evidence varies by jurisdiction. In many places, you have the right to preserve and present conversations you participated in. However, employment law, privacy regulations, and evidence rules differ significantly by country and region.
This workflow gives you a well-organized, credibly preserved record. What you can do with it legally is a question for your lawyer.
Document WhatsApp Harassment for HR: A Step-by-Step Guide
Workplace harassment on WhatsApp? Here's how to export, preserve, and organize your conversations into a structured incident report for HR or legal action.
