Sharon Kaytor worked at Electric Boat in Groton Connecticut from 1973 until her termination in 2007. She claimed that her supervisor caused a hostile work environment and generally made her life insufferable through his comments and actions. Her supervisor and Electric Boat, however, filed a summary judgement motion against Kaytor’s lawsuit, asking the trial judge to throw the case out before trial. The judge did through the case out, and said that no reasonable person could find that Kaytor experienced a hostile work environment, so, there’s no need for a trial.
Kaytor appealed the dismissal of her hostile work environment lawsuit against her boss and Electric Boat, and (here’s the good part) a panel of three appellate judges reinstated her hostile work environment claim — so her lawsuit gets to move forward after all.
Has Your Boss Done any of the These Things to You?
From 1998 until 2005 Sharon worked as an administrative assistant for Daniel J. McCarthy in one of the Engineering Departments at Electric Boat. Sharon’s relationship with Dan started out professional enough. For six years she handled ordering supplies and other admin functions for the hundreds of engineers that Dan supervised. Sharon testified that during this period there was no hostile work environment; but that ended in 2004 when Dan’s personality started to change.
According to Sharon, Dan went through a divorce and suddenly became much more sexually suggestive toward her. Sharon testified that Dan made suggestive remarks, frequently spoke negatively of women for being overweight, and would frequently compliment Sharon on her clothing.
These comments, by themselves, did not rise to the level of a hostile work environment. But, as is so frequently the case, the comments did not level out or stop.
Dan walked up to Sharon’s desk at one point where two of her scarves were laying. He picked them up, inhaled, and commented in a positive fashion about how much he liked the way the scarves smelled like Sharon. He then stood close to Sharon. She thought he was trying to smell her hair. Frightened, she tried to turn away and type until he left.
Even at this point, though, adding up all these facts doesn’t really amount to a hostile work environment. But again, Dan didn’t stop.
Sharon was sure that Dan “had designs on me”, and that he had grown angry and bitter because she refused to socialize with him outside of work. One day while in the office with other engineers around Dan shouted to Sharon, “YOU HAVE A FLAT ASS!”
Not only did Dan repeat this comment, but he also started repeatedly telling Sharon that he wished she were dead, that “I want to see you in your coffin” (six times), and that he wanted to “choke” her. Co-worker even began to warn Sharon that she need to take this seriously.
Instead of reporting Dan to Human Resources for threatening violence and causing a hostile work environment Sharon acted like the ultimate, easy going, “roll with it” employee. She said she didn’t report him because she was “trying to cut him some slack” because “he was going through a divorce”.
But guess what? He didn’t stop.
The next phase of harassment came when Sharon told Dan that she had to leave to go see her doctor. Dan had overheard Sharon telling other women in the office that she was going to her gynocologist for an annual exam. So as Sharon is leaving, Dan got up and loudly yelled down the hall, “You are going where every man wants to be” and told others that Sharon
was “spreading [her] legs for the doctor.”
It was finally at this point, in April of 2005, that Sharon said she would report the comments to a company vice president if Dan didn’t stop. Dan got a “horrid look on his face” and said, “I’ll kill you.” Sharon was so frightened that she said nothing until late 2005, after what Dan did on administrative assistants’ day.
There had been a tradition at Electric Boat of managers giving their secretaries nice gifts or flowers on administriative assistants’ day. In 2005, however, Dan gave Sharon an unnatractive plant with the following note: “I wish you the best and thank you for your help this past year. The plant is/can be planted outside and I hope bring[s] you pleasure in the years ahead.” Can you guess what kind of plant it was? A “Pussy Willow”. Read Dan’s note again with that in mind. Would you be offended?
Feeling that the Pussy Willlow gift and note was too much, Sharon finally went to Human Resources with her hostile work environment complaint. The offense, however, wasn’t merely the plant and note. The incident had become the talk of the company. One employee had been gone on admistrative professionals’ day. When he returned, he said more than a dozen people came up and told him about what “Dan had done to Sharon” in giving her a Pussy Willow. So it wasn’t just the insult, but the public shame of having the insult repeated over and over and over by all of Sharon’s co-workers. Her work environment had become hostile to the extent that she couldn’t take it any more.
If you think Dan’s actions, words, and pussy willow gift were dumb… just wait until you hear about how the company reacted to Sharon’s hostile work environment comlaint: coming in Part II of this article.
TAKE ACTION NOW
I explain all about how to fight back against a hostile work environment caused by an irrational bullying boss in my e-book, “Work Laws Exposed”. Click here to learn how you can use my letter template today and hand it to your employer tomorrow to start fighting back and taking control of your work life right now.
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