Would This Fall Under Harassment?

Question

I just asked one of my co-workers if she could install a program on my computer so that I could make a quick edit to our company web site. She was asked by me and my boss over 3 weeks ago to make a small change to our HTML code and she never got around to do it. I simply emailed her and asked her if she could install the program on my comp so I could get it done. She emailed me back and said that she got it done and next time "try not to be so, how do I say this politely, stuck up!"

Does this constitute as harassment?

Piggiepants · Accepted Answer

According to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) 

Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.  http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/harassment.cfm

You might be offended, but I doubt any reasonable person would consider that one message renders your entire work environment hostile or abusive.  

If you can't shrug it off, talk to the person and let them know why you were asking, and thank them for taking care of the web site issue.  Problem solved.

molly · Answer

No this does not constitute harassment at all - you may want to talk to your boss about her attitude/that you were insulted.

In order to be considered harassment in the legal sense it would need to be based on a protected class category, i.e. your age (over 40) religion, gender, sex etc.  This is just a co-worker attitude.

Judy · Answer

Good grief no - at most, maybe rude, but not harassment.

kbk823 · Answer

Not harassment, she just doesn't like you.

Trending News

Would This Fall Under Harassment?

4 Answers