B- and C-Words in the Workplace Can Be Sex Harassment, 11th Circuit Rules
A federal appeals court has ruled that gender-specific profanity in the workplace can create a hostile work environment, even if the vulgar words aren’t directed at a specific person.
The Fulton County Daily Report calls the en banc opinion (PDF) by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a “landmark decision” that is “remarkable for its unanimity—and free use of profanity.”
The plaintiff, Ingrid Reeves, worked as a transportation sales representative at the shipping company C.H. Robinson Worldwide. Her co-workers often used the words “bitch,” “whore” and “c—” to describe women they knew and spoke with, often embellished by the F-word. They also listened to a radio show that featured regular discussions of women’s anatomy. One co-worker had once displayed a pornographic image of a naked woman on his computer screen. Reeves protested, she says, but the conduct continued, and she quit her job.
The 11th Circuit ruled that Reeves could proceed with her claim, even though the insulting language was not directed at her. “A substantial portion of the words and conduct alleged in this case may reasonably be read as gender-specific, derogatory, and humiliating,” the court said. That evidence is sufficient to support an inference that the offending conduct was based on the sex of the employee, according to the opinion.
The case would be different, the court said, if the work environment “had just involved a generally vulgar workplace whose indiscriminate insults and sexually-laden conversation did not focus on the gender of the victim.”
