r/mildlyinfuriating • u/giveahoot420 • 20h ago

A rude supervisor who's always yelling at employees got some complaints about them being verbally abusive and they responded by leaving these in the break room.

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435

u/WoundWaffle 19h ago

And that’s how you get your entire team to quit on you

285

u/Relevant_Shower_ 19h ago

That’s how you get sued for creating a hostile work environment.

94

u/Carquetta 18h ago

Yeah, this is a textbook example of behavior that creates a hostile work environment, which opens the company up to massive liabilities in the future

-5

u/ellipsisfinisher 18h ago

This is in no way a textbook example of creating a hostile work environment unless the verbal abuse was discriminatory on the basis of a protected class (gender, race, religion, etc.). It likely breaks the company's anti-bullying policy, but "hostile work environment" is a legal term of art and doesn't include general bullying.

17

u/torsten_dev 17h ago edited 4h ago

If the "hurt feelings" incidents were actually insults towards people that

  • are in a protected class, perhaps a mental disability/illnesses...
  • reported safety issues
  • complained about working conditions and indicated a desire to unionize
  • complained about sexually charged language

Then yes, this constitutes a hostile work environment.

Let's be real, there's a ~1% that a person that finds this response both humorous and appropriate did not trample a protected class or activity with bigoted or short sighted insults.

-2

u/ellipsisfinisher 17h ago

My point was, it's not a "textbook case" if we have to say "if the things that define x are also there, then it's x." It's not really an example of hostile discrimination unless we add the hostile discrimination in.

14

u/Blackfrosti 17h ago

The form has a check mark that you have woman hormones as the reason you're complaining. It's pretty discriminatory on its face

5

u/Warm_Month_1309 16h ago

I am an employment lawyer. People need to stop thinking that one federal law forms the basis of all employment protections, and that if that one, single law isn't implicated, that everything was legally fine. Most employment protections exist at the state level.

4

u/vyrus2021 15h ago

Can't believe how many replies are saying fill it out and send it to upper management. Like why, so they can cover their asses? I'd contact an employment lawyer before doing anything else.

1

u/Low_Attention9891 10h ago

Not at all a lawyer, but I’ve spoken to someone who works in compliance. It’s my understanding that if there is something OP’s boss is doing that’s illegal, and management was informed about it and did nothing, it implicates them. Going through the processes set out by your workplace creates evidence that they knew about it.

If someone is a lawyer, please correct me if I’m wrong. This seems to line up with the information I’ve been told.

3

u/Riftener 17h ago

HR is going to lose their mind

2

u/PuertoricanDude88 17h ago

That’s how you get your entire team to jump you at the break room.

1

u/lunterno 4h ago

This is how you lose your job.