Hostile work environment

[Triocha]

I have worked for the same company for a total of 8 years. I am now 25 and I am having problems with my boss who is the President of the company. On numerous occassions he has referred to me "Simone a french whore', since my given name is Simone, but i am called Susie. He embarrasses me and I am very uncomfortable with this behavior. Today, something did not go right he screamed at me using vulgar language and did it in front of the whole company. He was screaming F this F that and getting in my face.I was going to resign but my friend told me that I needed to tell him his behavior will not be tolerated, I will not toerate being spoken to like that and if he fires me, I can collect unemployment and maybe able to have some legal recourse when I spoke to other people who work there and are related to him .they responded "He does it to his family why should you be any different, I responded "because I am not family" My friend told me I must go on record with him telling him his comments and screaming are unacceptable. please advise

 

[cbg]

In my opinion, you have a marginal sexual harassment case based on his calling you a whore (but NOT an open and shut case). If you choose to pursue this, it is possible that your case will be strengthened by your approaching him the way your friend says. However, if you do not choose to pursue the harassment issue, it is not a legal requirement.

However, I would be very careful about taking this course. Confronting him does NOT guarantee that you will be able to collect UI - in most cases if you quit, you are not entitled to UI. I would check with the state unemployment office before quitting.

If he treats everyone like this, and he is not singling you out for this type of treatment based on a protected characteristic, it weakens any legal case you might bring since you will not be able to prove that you are being treated differently. I know it stinks and, having been there, I think it's as lousy as you do, but the legal and dictionary definitions of "hostile" are not the same.