Do I have a case of Hostile Work Environment?????

[Blue In KY]

I think I may have a case for a hostile work environment I was battered for over a year with remarks like I get taken advantage of by customers, Because I am a Woman! I was verbally abused in a department meeting by an employee who found out 4 days before the meeting that he was being promoted to manager status. I reported the abuse to the store director and was told that it was a basic conflict between me and this now manager in training. And that he was going to do nothing to him for the sexist comments or the verbal abuse. The store director broke corporate policy when the complaint was made it was suppose to be investigated at corporate level, by an outside team from corporate, but an in store investigation was done.
I was made to work with a male employee who went against company policy and used materials from customers for his own private use. He should have been fired or at least transferred to a different department to keep temptation out of his way and he wasn't. And to ease the women of the department's mind from working with someone who is what we would consider a pervert for doing that with materials that were the property of our customers. This man is now taking his managers test too.
I was bombarded with temper trantrums by the first male who would slam cabinet doors and throw things all over the department because he had issuses with me and wouldn't talk to me about them to find out if they were true or just store gossip.. I was subjected to the first male talking about his sexual preferences and what he would do to relieve the stress on his lunch break with a former male employee in another department. I told the department manager that I really didn't need to come to work and hear this stuff and the only thing he did was say, "I know, no one wants to hear about them ignore him." When it didn't stop, I went to another manager and told her and she said she would talk to my manager and get it to stop.. Well it did stop, but created more hostility towards me from the 1st guy. Any help you could give me would be of great help. I live in Kentucky as you can see.....LOL
Thank you

 

[cbg]

You have a potential case, but it's not the one you think you have.

"Hostile" in the sense of a hostile work environment, does not mean hostile in the dictionary sense. No matter how many temper tantrums he has or how often he yells at you, that's not a hostile work environment in the legal sense if it really is just a case of personality conflict. You *may* have a gender discrimination case but it's impossible to say for sure with the details you have provided.

However, if you are being forced to listen to descriptions of someone's sexual likes and dislikes, you may well have a case of sexual harassment in what is called a case of "third-party" harassment; that is, no one is talking to you about it but you have no recourse but to listen anyway. This could indeed be a form of a hostile work environment. What you want to do is formally report this to your manager; that puts the company in the position of being forced to take action. If they fail to do so, call the EEOC. (Your case will be strengthened by having given the company a chance to respond.) But don't take too long; you have only 180 days after the last case of harassment to file.