President Trump Bashing Sessions Would Make For
Good Hostile Workplace Claim
Erin Mulvaney
points out in the National
Law Journal.
Mulvaney notes
that Trump’s multiple sessions of Sessions-bashing could lead to “harassment,
hostile workplace, defamation or invasion of privacy claims” if they occurred
between an employer an a subordinate in the corporate world. “Sharing a
performance review or bullying” would be ripe grounds for a lawsuit, she
argues.
President Donald Trump has not been discreet in
expressing his dissatisfaction with certain key members on his team. Recent
taunts blasted to his millions of followers on Twitter about U.S. Attorney
General Jeff Sessions essentially equates to a public—and very
negative—performance review. How would this public scolding fly in the
corporate world? We asked labor and management lawyers for their perspective.
Constructive
discharge claims might also be able to stick in some situations. That’s when an
employer makes an employee’s life so miserable that the employee has few other
avenues of recourse but to quit.
It turns out
both employers and the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission are
looking more and more at where workplace liability attaches to social media.
And, even if
it’s somehow or in some jurisdiction legal to somehow trash a subordinate’s
performance online, it’s not good business practice, Mulvaney’s experts point
out.
