Sexual harassment attorney, Kathryn Abernethy, discusses the biggest misconception people have about what legally counts as sexual harassment. Attorney Abernethy talks about what legally can be described as sexual harassment and why that may be different from a hostile work environment. She compares the differences between the two situations, and helps give advice on what employees can do if they are facing either situation.
To watch her full interview, watch the video below. You can also read the transcription provided on the video below. For more from Kathryn Abernethy’s video series, click here.
What’s The Biggest Misconception People Have About What Legally Counts as Sexual Harassment?
Transcription:
What legally counts as sexual harassment is conduct that is directed at a person because of either their protected status or because they engaged in protected conduct. Frequently people come to attorneys and say, âI believe I’ve suffered from a hostile work environment.â
Really, when you dig down and start to ask them about that environment, what you find is that they’ve got an abusive manager and unfortunately bad management.
Even abusive or bullying management is not automatically illegal. A supervisor who’s harsh, who’s unfair, who’s disorganized, and who’s rude to everyone, so what I like to call “an equal opportunity bully”, generally does not create a hostile and work environment under the law.
A hostile work environment requires a discriminatory or retaliatory motive behind the harassment. And so, to be actionable, the harassment must be directed at the employee because of a protected characteristic, for example, sex, race, pregnancy, disability, age, or it can be because the employer engaged in protected conduct, such as, for example, reporting discrimination or harassment in first instance.
But without that link to either protected status or protected conduct, the bullying that you’re experiencing may not be illegal.
