Hostile Work Environment Definition
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Has Your Bully Boss Said Anything This Stupid?

October 2, 2011 By 17 Comments
bossAngelDevil

Sometimes the stupid stuff your boss says is SO overwhelmingly stupid, that it's funny. And because being someone who is fighting back against harassment and bullies is stressful, I wanted to give you something to help you laugh a bit. I'm generally a serious guy, but sometimes you just need to laugh, you know? So, I hope this can put a smile on your face and give you the brief mental break that you need and deserve. So here's the list of 32 dumb things managers say included. 1. "Am I the only one around here with half a brain?!" 2. "I know my plan won't work, but don't disagree with me in front of others." 3. "I only say those things to look tough. I'm reshaping my image for advancement." 4. "I tried to e-mail you to tell you that my e-mail … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bad Boss, Blog, Discrimination, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment Tagged With: Bad Boss, Bully Boss, hostile work environment, Hostile Workplace
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The 12 Steps of “Restructuring” Jobs to Eliminate Older Workers

September 25, 2011 By 3 Comments
The 12 Steps of “Restructuring” Jobs to Eliminate Older Workers |

A bully boss will go to great lengths to terminate an employee they no longer want.  Frequently age discrimination, a kind of senior-employee-phobia, is the root cause. As both a defense lawyer advising companies, and in my role as the Undercover Lawyer advising individuals, I've witnessed the following pattern many times: 1.)  First Time Supervisor is in his/her 30's and nervous about being in charge of other employees 2.)  First Time Supervisor is intimidated and scared of employees who are in their 50's and 60's, but doesn't want anyone to know it 3.)  Employees in their 50's and 60's get micro-managed and nit picked by the First Time Supervisor over minuscule issues, which are the only issues the First Time Supervisor understands 4.)  Older Employees get sick of being … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Age Discrimination, Blog, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment Tagged With: Age Discrimination, Bully Boss, employee rights, hostile work environment, video
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How To Document a Hostile Work Environment

May 30, 2011 By 2 Comments
Man taking notes on what bad boss is doing

Visitors to the Forum and the Academy know that regular posters like Littlelulu, msliberated, Curt and I are always harping on the importance of DOCUMENTATION. And folks have asked: “What does that mean?” This article is going to give you the nuts and bolts of documentation, so you can protect yourself from any rogue activity that your employer or supervisor may engage in. By “rogue activity”, I mean your employer manufacturing documents and supposed incidents that occurred. It would help, I think, to start with the Dictionary definition. From my Webster’s Dictionary, “Documentation” means “the act or an instance of furnishing or authenticating with documents.” What’s a “Document”? As a Noun (a thing), a Document is “…an original or official paper … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment, Legal Strategies Tagged With: documentation, EEOC, employee rights, hostile work environment, Hostile Workplace
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Desperate Housewife Sues Abusive Boss For Hostile Work Environment

April 6, 2010 By 7 Comments
She's Suing Her Boss

Former "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan filed a lawsuit against the show's producer, Marc Cherry. Sheridan's suit accuses Cherry of “creating a hostile work environment on the set and behaving aggressively and abusively toward the cast and the writers." She claims that her character was killed off in retaliation for resisting his abuse, and she seeks $20 million in compensation. Three Hostile Bosses Ordered to Pay $185,000 to Two Employees Who Fought Back In Georgia, the former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones and three other people were ordered to pay two former employees $185,000. The former employees alleges that Jones created a hostile work environment based on race within the County’s Parks and Recreation Department. The trial was closely watched because … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Discrimination, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment Tagged With: abusive boss, hostile work environment cases, hostile workplace lawsuits, pregnancy discrimination, retalliation
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When Your Bully Boss is Behind Closed Doors, Do You Want to Know What the Lawyers Are Telling Him?

July 21, 2009 By 8 Comments
Listening In on Your Bully Boss

In Episode #9 the Undercover Lawyer (Curt K.) reveals 10 things that bosses do to their employees that cause hostile work environment lawsuits. (Podcast Player below). Even defense lawyers get mad at bad bosses, because bad bosses cause lawsuits.  This is explosive information that big business pays top dollar for; Curt himself regularly charges companies $1,000+ for "How Not to Get Sued" seminars that cover this same material!  But now you get it for free, plus Curt's explanation of how employees can use this information for their advantage. In the Quick Tip Curt covers how the new Federal Bailout Program includes money that you get right now if you've lost your job.  It's the COBRA subsidy, which requires your employer to pay 65% of COBRA premiums, so that you pay only 35% of the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment, Podcast Tagged With: abusive boss, Bully Boss, employee rights, harassed at work, hostile work environment, Hostile Workplace, job harassment, retaliation at work
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Curt’s Article About Hostile Work Environment Wins Award For Best New Hub!

July 6, 2009 By 5 Comments
hubpages_logo

Curt now has EIGHT powerful articles on Hubpages, each one contains information you should not be with out in dealing with a bad boss or hostile work environment. One article was nominated for "Hub Nugget", meaning Best New Article -- and it won!  Thanks to everyone who took time to vote for the article, "Hostile Work Environment -- Why HR Doesn't Care About You". Here's a link to the article if you haven't seen it, with links to the other 7 articles (or "Hubs") after … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment, Signs You're Abused at Work Tagged With: Abused at work, abusive boss, Bully Boss, harassed at work, hostile work environment, Hostile Work Place, Workplace Harassment
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Gradual Workplace Harassment Is Not Legal Harassment

July 2, 2009 By 6 Comments
gradual_harassment

You complain to your manager or to H.R., and what do they tell you?  There's no evidence that you are putting up with an illegal hostile work environment.  But you are having trouble sleeping, you feel sick when you think about work, and even though you try not to you spend most of your time worrying about work, you think about little else. How can your boss or H.R. excuse this?  How can they possibly claim that nothing is going on? Acme Markets said that Gloria Nieves was just complaining about good old fashioned teasing among co-workers.  Some of it may have been insensitive, but Acme claimed that no one thing that happened to Gloria at the deli where she worked amounted to illegal harassment.  But Gloria knew differently.  She took Acme to court, where the court said even … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Discrimination, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment Tagged With: hostile work environment, job discrimination, job harassment, national origin discrimination, Workplace Harassment
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The Abusive Boss Who Got Sued For “Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress”

June 16, 2009 By 12 Comments

Have you felt emotional distress at work because of the abusive way your boss treats you? Many of the people who contact me for help in dealing with a bully boss feel this way, and they want to sue their boss in court for all the workplace abuse he or she has inflicted. When someone like this tells me they want to sue, the first thing they say is that their boss caused “a hostile work environment.” (If you still think you can sue for a hostile work environment, you need to sign up for my 7 Free Work Law Secrets Email Course). The second thing people want to sue for is “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” This also rarely works, and I don't advise pursuing it, but... ...but a women named Gina Strong in Washington State recently has some success suing her boss for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bad Boss, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment, Legal Strategies Tagged With: Add new tag, Bully Boss, hostile work environment, negligent infliction of emotional distress
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Can Your Abusive Boss’s Unattainable Goals for You Actually be Discrimination Against You?

May 25, 2009 By 8 Comments
appraisal_pic

A performance improvement plan (or "PIP") is not discriminatory by itself.  But scores of employees who have bought "Work Laws Exposed" and utilized their free phone consultation with me have described feeling like their boss was trying to "get back at them" by setting astronomically high goals at the employees next appraisal or in a PIP. One female employee told me how she used FMLA leave to take her autistic son to a series of therapy sessions; soon after returning to work her boss placed her on a PIP and assigned her completely unattainable goals that she had to meet "or face termination"; One older male employee told me how he noticed that his boss, a first time supervisor, was driving out all the employees who were also older and more experienced; when the employee told HR that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bad Boss, Discrimination, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment, Retaliation Tagged With: Appraisals, hostile work environment, PIP, unrealistic goals
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The Abusive Boss Who Lost in Court

February 2, 2009 By 5 Comments

Download PDF Transcript Abusive bullying boss ruining your work? You need to hear about Joe. Joe is a hospital perfusionist (the person who operates the heart-lung machine during an open heart surgery).  Well Joe's boss, a surgeon, yelled at Joe, cussed at Joe, shook his fist and threatened Joe's job. Joe got sick.  Literally sick.  As in having to go to his doctor and get anxiety medication, dreading every single work day morning type of sick. Joe didn't just turn the tables on his boss, Joe freakin' flipped the tables over.  Here's how: The Bully-Boss Surgeon Joe Doescher's "boss" was a cardiovascular surgeon named Dr. Daniel Raess. Dr. Raess behavior included yelling, screaming, and swearing at Joe with "clenched fists, piercing eyes, beet-red face, [and] popping … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bad Boss, Featured, Hostile Work Environment & Workplace Harassment, Podcast Tagged With: Bully Boss, hostile work environment, job harassment, Podcast
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