What’s severe? When does their behavior become pervasive? And what does “abusive” mean in the context of a work environment? This is some of the stuff we have to think through and document to win our hostile workplace claim. That's what this video is about. Even if you don’t end up winning your hostile workplace claim, having this stuff documented can help bump up your damages on the claims you do win… and get you better compensation. It helped me get the max on my failure to accommodate claim. Severity: For EEOC to consider the harm severe, it has to be "serious and significant." What that means is situational. But there are questions we can ask ourselves to sus it out for our situation. - How egregious was the behavior? The egregious, the more likely it is that EEOC will see it as severe. -Did it harm our physical or mental health? If so, it's probably severe. But to establish this, we have to show that what out employer did actually caused the harm. - Did it interfere with our work performance? If it’s so bad that we can’t do our job anymore, it’s more likely to be considered severe. -Did it happen in front of others? Harassment in front of others can be humiliating, and that’s likely to be seen as more severe than if the same thing happened behind closed doors. Pervasiveness: -Did it persist over a long period of time? Think months or even years. -How frequently did it happen…daily, weekly? Sporadic events, even when they’re severe, probably won’t be seen as pervasive. - How widespread was it? Was it just the original perpetrator acting out the whole time, or did others get involved pile on? An important thing to know is that although the actual legal standard is “severe or pervasive,” often EEOC requires us to show both to prevail in a hostile workplace claim. If we can show it was both severe and pervasive, does that always mean it’s abusive? Yes... IF it was so severe and pervasive that it "altered the terms & conditions of our employment and created an abusive work environment. " In other words, to keep working there, did we have to do things, put up with things, or be held to standards… that were degrading, intimidating or threatening in some way? If we want to win, we have to assess our situation by laying out exactly what was severe & pervasive about the way we were treated. How did it alter the terms and conditions of our employment? And how was it dehumanizing, intimidating or threatening? I use my experience at NASA as an example. Once we've done that, we need to document the FACTS. But there are some things where our testimony is enough. Hostile workplace claims are about blatantly egregious patterns of behavior, sustained over a long period of time... things that are so bad that pretty much anybody would find them abusive. So once we've laid out what they DID, a reasonable judge ought to believe us when we testify that we were harmed. I had to prove what my boss did, but I didn’t have to prove it was dehumanizing. Once I proved she did it, my AJ understood that what she did was inherently dehumanizing. If you’re in a middle hostile work environment yourself right now: 1. Lay out your case using the factors I mention in this video. How is the way you’re being treated it severe? Pervasive? Abusive? 2. Document everything you can about the facts of your story. Here are some more sources about how to win a hostile workplace claim: Florin/Gray Law covers some really important stuff that isn't in my video: https://www.floringray.com/hostile-work-environment-claim/ Great Info from Shegerian Law: https://shegerianlaw.com/blog/hostile-workplace-how-to-know-what-to-do-about-it/ Elements of a Hostile Workplace Claim by the 9th Federal Circuit: https://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/jury-instructions/node/666 "1-800 The Law" overview: https://www.1800thelaw2.com/resources/labor-employment/hostile-work-environment-definition/ The Basics at WikiHow: https://www.wikihow.com/Prove-a-Hostile-Work-Environment