Hostile environment

System · September 2004

Florida employer: employee has claimed she is being forced to resign due to "hostile environment" However, when reading her statement, her complaint basicall boils down to the fact her supervisor treats her badly, is rude, yells at her, makes demeaning comments and genrally lacks any redeeming managerial skills. There is no mention of sexual harrassment (both ee and spv are females)no mention of racial harassment (both white females) and no other apparent Title VII type claims. My initial response is to tell this woman that although her supervisor may have horrible supervisory skills, she has done nothing illegal. Before I do something I may regret, my question is: is there any Florida statute (or federal for that matter) that prohibits "hostility" or "harassing behavior" by a supervisor/manager? Is outward hostility (i.e. yelling, screaming, insults, threats of termination, verbal abuse, intimidation) in of itself, illegal, without evidence that such was based upon racial, gender, religous, and/or age related factors? A prompt reply is greatly appreciated as I have a meeting with this employee Wednesday morning (9/22). Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Don D · September 2004

If there were any laws against any of those behaviors, we would have no women managers left. Perennial PMS violates no labor laws. (Actually I'm posting what I assume Crout would post).

dchr9203 · September 2004

So what hormonal label do you give a male supervisor who acts like a total jackass?

Crout · September 2004

Hey! I would NOT say that!! I'm sure we'd have SOME left.

Al Vreeland · September 2004

There is no statute which prohibits general harassment, as opposed to harassment based upon a protected characteristic (e.g., race, sex, age, disability). Even if the conduct and comments are neutral on their face, they could still violate Title VII or one of the other anti-sdicrimination laws if the supervisor only treats people in a protected category that way (e.g., rude to women but not to men).

Although not prohibited by statute, extreme behavior even if neutral could possibly give rise to a tort action, such as for intentional infliction of emotional distress. This, however, is rare and has to be extreme.

Al Vreeland
Editor, Alabama Employment Law Letter
Lehr Middlebrooks Price & Vreeland, P.C.

LarryC · September 2004

Unless the hostility turns physical, courts have said that being boorish and mean is, unfortunately, not illegal.

Whatever · September 2004

I'm a little confused by your question. You seem to be intimidating that if no law is being broken, the supervisor will be allowed to continue their hostile behavior. This what I find illogical.

System · September 2004

Not at all. I'm just first just trying to sort out if the employee has a legal "harrassment" or "hostile environment" claim or other potential legal claim. Her accusations are, as you might have guessed, somewhat exagerrated, inaccurate and at time, downright fabricated. However, this is not to say her supervisor seriously lacks managerial discretion and diplomacy. I'll deal with that issue later.

System · September 2004

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-21-04 AT 03:08PM (CST)[/font][br][br]How about 'constructive discharge' where the supervisor makes the employee so miserable in her employment that she cannot work under those conditions and is forced to resign? Is that the supervisor's intent?

Just another tangent to look at.

Don D · September 2004

In the absence of emotional distress, isn't about the only outcome of constructive discharge going to be the probable approval for unemployment insurance?

hhaynal · September 2004

There is a recent case that just came out, Pa. State Police v. Suders, that held that an employee may assert a claim for constructive discharge based on sexual harassment under Title VII. Harassment includes not just sexual harassment but also any harassment (including hostile environment) based on a protected status. For the act to be actionable, the offending behavior must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the victim's employment conditions and create abusive working conditions. The Court indicates that "when an employee claims the abuse resulted in construcctive discharge, something more must be shown: working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person would have felt compelled to resign."

There is more to the case than this, but just putting it out there for reference that employers may be held liable for constructive discharge resulting from harassment.

njjel · September 2004

What about employee to emloyee hostility? We have two ee's, both female, who do not see eye to eye. The one ee claims that the other makes her life miserable by making snide remarks to her and laughing at her as she passes her in the hallways. She claims this is making her life at work miserable. One of the ee's is union president and the other is a member of the same union. We have met individually with each of them and of course the one denies doing any of the things the other claims she does. At that time they basically agreed to stay out of each other's way and we said we would meet again with them. We did meet this week with the ee who is claiming she is being harassed via hostility and found the situation had not improved. We have yet to meet with the union presdient. I have never observed the behavior that is being claimed. Any suggestions?

deniseE · September 2004

Do you have any expected codes of conduct for your managers/supervisors?

While being boorish is not illegal...it certainly can be against company policy.

Is this the mold you are seeking in your "higher ups"?

If we could document the yelling/screaming/name calling whether the ee was in a protected class or not, we would define this as unprofessional and unacceptable behavior and discipline accordingly.

Hostile environment

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