March 2004
You Be the Judge!When Is Workplace Harassment Sufficiently Severe or Pervasive to Constitute an Unlawful Hostile Environment?
By Steven Deibert
To prevail on a hostile work environment claim, a plaintiff must prove that the workplace was permeated with discriminatory intimidation that was "sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions" of employment. Meritor Savings Bank FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 106 S.Ct. 2399 (1986) An objectionable environment must be "both objectively and subjectively offensive, one that a reasonable person would find hostile and abusive, and one that the victim in fact did perceive to be so." Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S.775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 2283 (1998). Courts must examine the totality of the circumstances in deciding whether a hostile environment exists. Id.
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