How to explain A Hostile Work Environment
Hostile Work Environment
Sharing buttons:
my name is Branigan Robertson and I'm an
employment lawyer this video is the
ultimate guide to hostile work
environment and harassment law I'm about
to explain workplace harassment without
all the legal jargon so if you want to
know if you have a case for harassment
and what it might be worth then keep
watching before we jump in I have a few
preliminary items to cover first this
video will cover the following topics
the legal definition of a hostile work
environment examples of common
harassment cases what to do if you're
still employed you quit or you were
fired the statutes of limitations which
is the deadline that you have in which
to file your case and at the end of the
video we'll cover how much money your
case might be worth second I use the
terms hostile work environment and
harassment interchangeably I do this
because 99% of the harassment cases we
see fall within the hostile work
environment umbrella in the eyes of the
law these usually mean the same thing
third I will not be covering sexual
harassment in this video while all the
principles certainly apply I made a
detailed video called understanding
sexual harassment that I would recommend
if that is the situation you are facing
and fourth in this video I primarily
discuss California law because that is
where I have a license to practice law
however this video is meant for everyone
across America if you are not in
California this video will help you
identify critical questions that you
should ask a lawyer in your state if you
are in California and you need a
consultation here's my contact
information if you think I've earned
your phone call all right let's get
going
in California the main anti harassment
law is California Government Code
section 1 - 9 4 0 subsection J if you're
not in California Title 7 is the federal
anti her ass
law that applies to everyone across
America here's what the California law
says yes I'm actually going to read the
law to you it is an unlawful Employment
Practice for an employer because of a
protected characteristic which we'll
cover here in a second to harass an
employee it becomes unlawful if
supervisors knew or should have known of
the harassing conduct and failed to take
appropriate corrective action subsection
K goes on to say that it is unlawful for
an employer to fail to take all
reasonable steps to prevent harassment
from occurring but that's not the end of
the story the law also requires that the
harassment be unwelcome which means you
didn't want it to happen
I might seem obvious but it's actually
sometimes very confusing in cases the
harassment also must be so severe or
pervasive that a reasonable person in
the victims shoes would have considered
it an abusive working environment so to
summarize it is illegal for an employer
to harass anyone because they have a
protected characteristic again we'll
cover those in just a second before we
get to the protected classes I want to
point out a few very important things
look I only read two small parts of one
two nine four zero there's a lot more to
this body of law that I don't have time
to get into in this short video but if
you want to know more about this area of
law go to my hostile work environment
page on my website I'll leave a link
below my website dives deep into the law
this California law applies to all
employers who have at least one or more
employees the federal Title 7 law
applies to employers with 15 or more
employees so if you work for a small
company that is below 15 employees and
you're not in California you not you
might not be able to pursue your case at
least not under Title 7 ok so what are
these mysterious protected
characteristics in California because
harassment isn't just sexual harassment
harassment can be based on any one of
these things so real quickly race
religion color
national origin ancestry physical
disability mental disability medical
condition genetic information marital
status sex which also includes sexual
harassment pregnancy and related medical
medical conditions gender gender
identity gender expression age if you're
over the age of 40 sexual orientation
military status and veteran status this
means that if somebody is harassing you
because you have one of these
characteristics you may be a victim of
unlawful harassment now these are the
California protected categories the
federal title seven only protects race
color religion sex which includes
pregnancy national origin age disability
and genetic information I think each one
of these categories has a very specific
legal definition so if you want to know
if the harassment that you are facing
falls into one of these categories you
need to call a lawyer it's very
important before we move on let me talk
you through a common-looking example
let's pretend you're female and you've
been working a job for a few years with
positive performance reviews suddenly
you get a new supervisor and he makes it
very clear that he believes that if
women choose to work they shouldn't get
pregnant he makes all sorts of
derogatory comments towards working
women who are pregnant and have small
children saying that they're not
committed they look sloppy and they're
somehow betraying their family he
actually makes fun of women in the same
company in other departments who are
pregnant saying that he feels sorry for
their managers and it just so happens
that a few months later you become
pregnant as soon as he finds out he
starts excluding you from phone calls
micromanaging your tasks writing you up
for petty things and just making your
life miserable now he doesn't say
anything about your pregnancy directly
to your face but you already know that
he hates it suddenly you get put on a
performance improvement plan with
impossible goals to meet and then two
months later when you don't meet those
goals he fires you
in this situation if your lawyer can
convince a jury that the real reason for
your termination and the hostile work
environment before that is your
pregnancy then you'll probably win your
case obviously in this example you can
easily swap out the protected
characteristic for disability race
religion age etc and the principles
would still apply and if you are paying
close attention to the example you
probably noticed that your boss never
came out and said that he was firing you
because you got pregnant it's extremely
rare in today's world to find that good
of direct evidence in harassment cases
that the company fired you for your
protected characteristic rather it's
your lawyers job to prove that the real
reason for your termination was your
protected characteristic in this case
that would be your pregnancy the
termination lie that you didn't meet the
performance improvement plan is called a
pretext and I've made an entire video on
pretext I highly recommend that you
watch that video once this one is done
I'll put a link below
wellokay Brannigan what should I do if
I'm currently experiencing a hostile
work environment
generally my advice changes depending on
whether the person I'm speaking with was
fired if they quit or if they're still
employed let's look at all three of
those situations if you're still
employed unless extraordinary
circumstances apply I generally don't
recommend hiring legal counsel and
blasting your company with a nasty
letter or a lawsuit and I'll explain why
in just a second
generally I recommend that employees
send a polite respectful and helpful
written complaint to the appropriate
authority at your company I made a
detailed video on how to complain
properly at work so if you are being
harassed right now at work I highly
recommend that you watch that video as
soon as this one is over I'll put a link
below
generally lawyers like me tell people to
call us after they get fired that is the
best time to hire a lawyer and take
legal action
and I know that's not very helpful for
the folks who are still employed which
I'm guessing is the majority of you
watching this video and I'm also
assuming that a lot of the people who
are watching this want to put a stop to
the harassment and save their job
because they don't want to lose their
job it's much better to have a good job
than a good lawsuit so why do you we ask
people to call us after they get fired
well there's two main reasons for this
first the tools that the law has given
employment lawyers like me are largely
ineffective at stopping hostile work
environments usually when a lawyer like
me inserts myself into the middle of an
ongoing employment relationship we just
make everything worse because it paints
a big target on your back and the
company from that point forward will
want you to fail lawyers like me are far
more effective at pursuing justice after
the fact and teaching the company a very
painful lesson second this concerns
attorneys fees most employees simply
don't have enough money to pay lawyers
like me out of pocket that's why we
usually work on a contingency fee we
only get paid if we recover money for
you first due to the amount of time and
money it takes a lawyer like me to
properly pursue a harassment case the
case simply must be worth a significant
amount and unfortunately that usually
means our clients have been fired now
there's always exceptions to this so if
extraordinary circumstances apply to you
my office would be happy to provide you
with a consultation well okay what if
you quit your job
after getting fed up with a hostile work
environment these cases are pretty tough
California law says that unless your
resignation qualifies as a constructive
termination you cannot collect your lost
wages this dramatically hurts the value
of your kit of your case now I've taken
cases or my clients quit in the past but
in those situations the harassment was
truly extraordinary so if you quit your
job doing extra due to extraordinary
harassment call my office to see if your
resignation make
is a constructive termination well what
exactly is a constructive termination
unfortunately I don't have time to get
into it in this video so if you quit and
you want to know either call my office
for a consultation or go to my website
as I have lots of information on that
subject there when you hear lawyers
talking about hostile work environments
you often hear us talk about things
called the EEOC or the DF eh what are
these these are government agencies that
try to enforce workplace anti harassment
laws the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission or EEOC is a federal agency
so it applies to everyone in the United
States whereas the Department of Fair
Employment and housing the DF eh is a
California agency so it applies only to
California employees for purposes of
this video these two agencies do two
main things number one they actually
pursue cases on behalf of employees much
like a private lawyer like me would do
and second they are a gatekeeper before
you can pursue your case in court
even with a private lawyer you need to
get a right to sue letter from one of
these agencies in order to exhaust your
administrative remedies now if you have
a good case and you hire a private
lawyer like me I will acquire the right
to sue letter for you before we pursue
your case in court having a lawyer get
you right to sue letter is a smart move
because people screw up the right to sue
letter all the time generally if you can
find a good lawyer to take your case you
should pursue the case with the lawyer
these government agencies are simply
overwhelmed with claims moreover you
rarely hear about the EEOC or the DF eh
getting a large settlement or verdict on
behalf an employee but if you can't find
a lawyer to take your case these
agencies are a great option in all areas
of the law we have deadlines meaning you
have to do something before the deadline
comes if you don't your case goes
goodbye in California these deadlines
are called statutes of limitations so
you need to file your hostile work
environment claim with the df' eh
within one year of the last act of
harassment after you get your
right-to-sue letter you have one year in
which to file your case in court however
I recommend that you contact a lawyer
right after severe harassment or a
termination has taken place this is
because certain situations have
complicated statues they overlap and
some of them are requiring you to take
action as quickly as six months so don't
wait
contact a lawyer ASAP outside of
California in general you need to file a
charge with the EEOC within 180 days and
from the last act of harassment once you
receive your right-to-sue letter you
must file your lawsuit within 90 days in
court but again do not wait this long if
you are the victim of serious harassment
contact a lawyer the next day don't wait
months or years because likely you'll
lose your chance entirely next we are
briefly going to cover how much
harassment lawsuits can be worth but
before I do please know I made a
detailed video on this exact subject so
if you're really curious about case
value go watch that video because I
cover this stuff extensively alright you
can recover for different types of
damages lost wages pain and suffering
punitive damages and attorneys fees
let's talk about lost wages first lost
wages are the lost salary benefits
commissions hourly wages bonuses that
you're no longer earning because you
were terminated for example if you were
making $45,000 a year and then you were
harassed and fired
you're not making $45,000 a year anymore
but you can only recover these lost
wages which are also known as economic
damages if you are terminated
unless extraordinary circumstances exist
the law doesn't let you recover these
types of damages if you voluntarily quit
now if you're still in pull employed
second pain and suffering pain and
suffering damages are for the emotional
pain humiliation and mental suffering
that you experienced due to the hostile
work
and these damages are very real in
harassment cases they can get extremely
large and you can't fake them you're
gonna be evaluated by experts in front
of a jury so the amount of emotional
distress damages that you will receive
is decided by the jury and please
realize two different juries can hear
the exact same case and award two
different amounts but usually in severe
cases the emotional distress damages are
significantly larger than your lost
wages third punitive damages everybody's
heard about punitive damages these are
the damages meant to punish the company
for acting with malice oppression or
fraud these are rare and you have to
have a really good case to win these
fourth attorneys fees in harassment
cases you can recover attorney fees on
top of the other forms of damages if you
go all the way to trial and you win
now this directly benefits you because
the company could be on the hook for
your attorneys fees which in some in
some cases can be several times larger
than your damages so this increases the
settlement value of your case and since
the majority of cases settle this is a
good thing for the employee all of this
damage stuff is to say that some cases
settle for millions of dollars but most
settle for a lot less than that
every case is drastically different so
to get a realistic idea of what your
case might be worth unfortunately you're
gonna have to contact a lawyer I hope
you found this video to be informative
and helpful if you are in California and
you need a lawyer right now here's my
contact information my office handles a
lot of harassment cases and I would be
honored to evaluate your situation free
of charge
finally if this video helped you in some
small way please consider giving it a
thumbs up on youtube and subscribe to my
channel if you know somebody who is
currently experiencing a hostile work
environment please share this video with
them they will thank you for that is all
I have for you
I hope you have a fantastic day
[Music]
