Do you dread going into work because a clique of employees go out of their way to make your day miserable? Workplace behavior experts cite a competitive edge as the impetus for some of the poor treatment female workers give to colleagues because they feel threatened or insecure.
While this insight may be helpful for understanding why these behaviors occur, it falls short of determining whether a bullied worker has experienced actual discrimination on the job. The fact is that workers alleging discrimination must be able to link the bullying acts to targeted behavior based on the bullied person’s identity.
What categories are protected?
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, it is illegal to discriminate against employees based on the following protected traits:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender
- Race
- Religion
Pennsylvania also prohibits discrimination based on workers’ sexual orientation, a category that is not protected in some of the other states.
Has bullying crossed the line?
Run-of-the-mill bullying behaviors may cross the line at some point and become discrimination. Some examples of this might be a colleague mocking your religion or accent. If it happens frequently and has affected your ability to perform your job duties, you might allege that your bully has created a hostile work environment for you.
Understand that not all bullying rises to the threshold of workplace discrimination. One example to help you determine what is really going on might be personality clashes that arise in the workplace that have no roots in the protected discrimination categories.
What you can do
If you truly believe that your work colleagues have subjected you to a hostile work environment due to discriminatory bullying, document each instance of this egregious behavior so you can build a solid case.
