Hostile Work Environment

The Shallot Financial News (04/01/2013)

A lawsuit was filed today alleging that Double Sawbuck Corporation (XX) had fostered a hostile work environment. XX dropped more than $2 on the news. The plaintiff, Mr. Exwye alleges that Double Sawbuck encouraged women, but not men, to report hostile work environments. The plaintiff alleges that all of Double Sawbuck's hostile work environment training related to male behavior that women found objectionable but included not a single instance of female behavior that men found objectionable. In particular, plaintiff alleges that management repeatedly emphasized that simply having a magazine such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue in a man's office created a "hostile work environment," whether or not the magazine was actually seen by anybody but the magazine owner. Additionally, a male employee (not Mr. Exwye) was forced to remove a picture of his wife from his computer, even though the computer screen was not visible from the hallway and the employee habitually used a lockscreen whenever he left the office or another person entered the office.

Plaintiff alleges that Double Sawbuck has neither enforced any "hostile work environment" rules against women, nor has Double Sawbuck even provided training in what males find objectionable in many females' behavior. Pressed for examples by this newspaper, Mr. Exwye declined citing Double Sawbuck's unwritten, but nonetheless enforced, policy that negative comments about hostile work environment rules would not be tolerated as these negative comments themselves created a hostile work environment. Mr. Exwye indicated that he did not want to create a hostile work environment, he just wanted to keep women from doing things that men found objectionable in addition to keeping men from doing things that women found objectionable. He said "Nobody should be subjected to a hostile work environment."

Double Sawbuck said that its policy and training were completely consistent with standard "hostile work environment" rules. Double Sawbuck said the company had not surveyed male employees about what Double Sawbuck males found objectionable about female behavior to avoid, on the advice of the company's lawyers, possible charges that the survey itself created a hostile work environment for women. When pressed for further details, Double Sawbuck declined citing ongoing legal action, but noted that its "hostile work environment" training was contracted out to the Habeas Viginti Training Corporation and that company's experts indicated that such a survey was completely unnecessary.