Is Workplace Bullying Illegal?
Texas employment law attorney Chris McKinney discusses bullying at work in today's video. When does workplace bullying cross the line into illegal harassment? We discuss that and related issues.
Transcript
- Is workplace bullying illegal? Hi, I'm Texas Employment Rights Attorney, Chris McKinney. And today we're talking about bullying in the workplace and whether or not it's illegal. It's a question that we get quite often. And the answer is, it depends. It depends not on the type of bullying, but on the reason for the bullying. Let me explain. In the workplace, as a general rule, bullying and bad conduct is not illegal. However, if you're being bullied by a boss, or sometimes by a coworker, and the reason for the bullying is due to your membership in an EEO category, then that type of bullying or harassment might be illegal. So, for example, if you're being harassed sexually, sexually harassed, or if you're being harassed because you're a male or because you're a female, so the reason is sex, even if the harassment doesn't have a particular sexual component to it, then that might be illegal harassment. You see this very often in workplaces in which the workers in the office are predominantly of one gender or the other. But sex is not the only way that harassment or bullying can be illegal. if you're being harassed or bullied because of other EEO category memberships, such as your race, or your religion, or your national origin. Maybe you're Hispanic and you're in an all-white workforce, or you're white and you're in a Hispanic workforce and you're being harassed because of that, that might be illegal. Or for your membership in a religion or a disability. Those are all EEO categories that if you're being harassed or bullied because of your membership in that category, that might be illegal bullying or harassment. But, what about the case when your boss is just a jerk or you have a coworker who's just a terrible person and he's nasty to everybody or nasty to you, but not particularly because of your membership in a particular EEO category. In those cases, sadly, that type of bullying or harassment probably is not illegal. Still, if you have any questions about it, what you may wanna do is reach out to a qualified employment lawyer, which you can find by contacting our website, www.themckinneylawfirm.com. We talk to people every day about questions involving employment law and their rights in the workplace. We have a contact page on that website and we'd be happy to hear from you. Additionally, there's a lot of additional information, videos, articles, and other informational material on our website. So feel free to go there and do your own research about your situation at work. If you found this video helpful, we'd love it if you'd like the video down below, or if you would subscribe to this channel. Both of those help other people find the video on YouTube, which is useful. And also if you subscribe to the channel, then whenever we produce a new video and put that out, you'll be notified by it right away. Our website information is down below. Feel free to click on that and come to our website. And we look forward to hearing from you. Take care. We'll see you next time.
