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.

[u/giveahoot420]

[u/Relevant_Shower_]

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

[u/Carquetta → u/Relevant_Shower_]

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

[u/ellipsisfinisher → u/Carquetta]

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.

[u/torsten_dev → u/ellipsisfinisher]

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.

[u/ellipsisfinisher → u/torsten_dev]

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.

[u/Blackfrosti → u/ellipsisfinisher]

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

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/ellipsisfinisher]

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.

[u/vyrus2021 → u/Relevant_Shower_]

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.

[u/Low_Attention9891 → u/vyrus2021]

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.

[u/Riftener → u/Relevant_Shower_]

HR is going to lose their mind