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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Free iPhone App For Documenting Your Wage Claim

July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
DOL Time Sheet App

A neat little new app for Smartphones – brought to you by our friends at the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division – lets employees independently track their work, break and overtime hours. It’s currently compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and updates are being planned for other Smartphone platforms. What is it and why should I get it? The DOL’s Timesheet App for Smartphones was released in May. Employees can use it to keep track of the hours they work. According to the DOL, “this new technology is significant because, instead of relying on their employers’ records, workers can now keep their own records.” Employers are required by the Fair Labor Standards Act to maintain records of their employees’ hours, but – ultimately - who owns those … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Legal Strategies Tagged With: apps, Bully Boss, documentation, hostile work environment, wage claim
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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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More Insider HR Tips: What Are HR Pros Saying About You?

August 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

HR Knicker Twisters, by Mary The Undercover HR Director ("OnYourSide") in the forums Welcome to my second article! I’ll be writing articles periodically when I have news to share with you or an opinion on current events. I hope you had a chance to read my first article. I promised to share with you some “HR Knicker Twisters” gleaned from the recent SHRM® 2010 Annual Conference and Exposition that I attended in San Diego, California. Californians: you have a seriously gorgeous state. I can see why California is in such danger of earthquakes. There must be so many jealous transplants from other states weighing it down that if a really big earthquake happened California would just crack off and drop into the Pacific. As your intrepid Undercover HR Director, I attended the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Legal Strategies Tagged With: Bully Boss, Conference, employee rights, FMLA, harassed at work, hostile work environment, human resources, SHRM
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Attacking a Bullying Victim, Again: Phoebe Prince

July 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Phoebe Prince

A lawyer who is defending one of the bullies that drove high schooler Phoebe Prince to suicide just published an article in the online magazine Slate. The outrage comes from the slant of the article, which "reports" as objective news that Phoebe brought the bullying upon herself. She's painted as being a "self-mutilating misfit bent on suicide." The apparent purpose of the article is only too obvious to people who have been the victims of workplace bullying; the purportedly objective investigator makes the bully appear less awful by heaping blame on the victim. How many people have complained to HR of a "hostile work environment", only to be called in to HR and disciplined for poor performance while nothing happens to the bully? This happens so often it's sickening. But this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Discrimination, Uncategorized Tagged With: bullying, hostile work environment, Hostile Workplace, human resources
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Age Discrimination Among the Unemployed, and Movement on a Workplace Harassment Bill

April 9, 2010 By 2 Comments
Delgadopic

Good News / Bad News The Illinois State Senate passed a version of the Namie's anti-bullying bill. The bill was introduced by Illinois State Senator William Delgado, who said "Being in an abusive work environment is intolerable. This legislation will finally give workers some means of relief from the abuse they may be tolerating in their work environment." At the time the Bill was introduced, it was written to apply to public and private employees, to make harassment from bosses and from co-workers illegal, and would have made managers and co-workers individually liable for bullying. The bill even went so far as to make it a criminal act for a manager to retaliate against an employee who complained about bullying. (Read more HERE). But you know how politics work. Business … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Age Discrimination, Blog, Featured Tagged With: Age Discrimination, Bully Boss, employee rights, employment lawsuit verdicts, hostile work environment, Hostile Workplace
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Why You Should Not Give Up if the EEOC Turns Down Your Hostile Work Environment Claim

April 7, 2010 By 3 Comments
bullyfree-zone-225x300

Schools Tackle Teacher-on-Teacher Bullying In the Workplace USA Today features an interesting article about how 41 states have anti-bullying statutes for students, but zero states have anti-bullying statutes that apply to the teachers or administrators. That's starting to change, however, with two school districts -- one in Iowa and one in California -- for the first time ever explicitly prohibiting teacher to teacher bullying. This collateral bullying is a huge topic in itself. But what's troubling to me is that the article does NOT specifically state that the new rules prohibit school administration from bullying teachers. It's an otherwise interesting article, and you can read it HERE. When an EEOC Investigator Turns You Down, You Can Still Prevail I recently … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bad Boss, Blog, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bully Co-worker, EEOC, hostile work environment, hostile workplace eeoc, Retaliation, teachers and bullying
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Whistleblower Protection for Nurses in Health Care Reform Bill

March 29, 2010 By 15 Comments
Protected from Whistle Blowing by New Health Care Reform Bill

The "Health Care Reform Bill" that has been at the top of the news lately contains some good news for nurses, nursing home employees, and other health care workers who are suffering under a bullying boss or being harassed at work. Now this reform bill, which is actually named "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009," does not outright prohibit bullies in the healthcare workplace. Although it would be a good idea to catch the U.S. up with the rest of the civilized world, we're still a ways off from making it illegal to purposefully ruin another person's career. But, this law can be a another tool that you can learn to use in your fight against an unfair supervisor. Specifically, the Bill gives whistleblower AND retaliation protection to health care workers! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, New Laws Tagged With: employee rights, health care reform, hostile work environment, job harassment, nurses, Retaliation, whistleblower
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Steps Toward Workplace Civility Law & Could You Qualify for Disability Benefits?

January 25, 2010 By 8 Comments
Confused

In Episode #14 of the Hostile Workplace Podcast we review two recent cases, both of which point toward the federal courts gradual expansion of discrimination law, inching closer to requiring civility in the workplace. Ingrid Reeves v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide (11th Cir., January 20, 2010) Indergard v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., (9th Cir., September 28, 2009) We also have a highly informative interview with Brian Therrien of Disability Digest. We've featured … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Disability, Featured, New Laws, Podcast Tagged With: Bully Boss, Disability Discrimination, employee rights, hostile work environment, Podcast
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