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Rudeness Isn't Illegal, but It Sure Can Cost You
Just ask the prominent Nashville hospital that won a four-year legal battle in Frye v. St. Thomas Health Servs., a recent decision handed down by the Tennessee Court of Appeals. A hospital accounting services manager and her immediate supervisor repeatedly butted heads over the supervisor's allegedly preferential treatment of other employees. By the Court of Appeals' account, however, it was the "intense, dominant, abrupt, rude, and hard-nosed" supervisor who was the problem. After the conflict resulted in the employee's termination, the employee sued.
The Court of Appeals ruled for the hospital, finding that the work environment, although hostile, was not discriminatory. The court held that a supervisor's "mean, hard to get along with, overbearing, belligerent or otherwise hostile and abusive" conduct does not violate an employee's rights unless the conduct is motivated by the plaintiff's race, age, sex, religion, disability, or pregnancy.
The hospital won the case but undoubtedly spent a large sum in legal fees—not to mention the many employee hours lost in defending the action. The lesson for employers is to avoid such lawsuits entirely by reminding supervisors that pleasant and respectful work relationships not only foster a productive work environment can but can preserve the employer's bottom line. |
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