Lenora's Journey Through a Hostile Workplace In two previous articles a 52 year old nurse named Lenora was harassed and abused by her new (younger) boss and former co-worker Michelle. Feeling distressed and sick, Lenora stayed home from work and called her brother in law, a corporate employment lawyer named Curt. Although he usually works on the side of the employers, he wanted to help his family member. Talking on the phone and over lunch Curt explained the difference between legal and illegal hostile work environments, and explained why the concept of "employment at will" is so crucial to fighting back against a bullying boss. Lenora wants to turn her boss Michelle into the hospital's human resources department for "unfairly" attacking Lenora at work. Curt is trying to persuade … [Read more...]

Step One to Fighting Back: Understand Employment At-Will In a previous post, a 52 year old nurse, Lenora, felt sick and distressed about the hostile work environment her new supervisor (and former co-worker) was subjecting Lenora to. The new supervisor and head nurse, Michelle, was acting like a tyrant, but only toward Lenora and not the other nurses. Feeling alone and dreading going into work, Lenora stayed home and called her brother-in-law, a corporate employment lawyer named Curt. Curt explained that an illegal hostile work environment has to be based on a protected class like race, religion, national origin, gender, disability or age. Lenora was even more despondent, because she and Michelle were both women, so Lenora doubted the law would protect her. In Lenora's mind, … [Read more...]

Question: What is the Definition of a Hostile Work Environment? Answer: There are actually two types of "Hostile Work Environments": 1) legal; and 2) illegal.  To see which you are experiencing, consider the story of Lenora. Perhaps you have experienced something like Lenora, a conscientious nurse who loved her patients and felt valued at work -- until her co-worker became her boss. Lenora worked as a nurse at a hospital in California and felt fortunate to have her job, until administration promoted Lenora's co-worker Michelle to be the new Head Nurse. Sure Michelle was a good nurse, but after her promotion Michelle dramatically changed from a pleasant if shy co-worker into an angry tyrant. Michelle raised her voice at many of the nurses, but singled Lenora out for particularly … [Read more...]