Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Re: public harrassment in an office environment

This has the potential to be a complex answer. Prior to private practice I represented a corporation (in-house) and here are the things that would be going through my mind:

As far as business laws, there really aren't many that are involved here. Most of the laws involved are either tort laws (e.g., defamation) or employment laws (e.g., hostile work environment), as well as company policy. As in-house counsel, I would be asking how involved the verbal attack was--did he call the other employee a name (perhaps he said that she was acting like a �jerk�), or did he threaten to harm her? In other words, how out of line was the male employee? No physical harm or slander was mentioned so I will assume that it did not happen.

Does the female employee report to the male employee? If so, continued repetition of these type of acts could make it hard for her to perform her best work in this environment. However, one isolated incident does not usually give an employee the grounds to make a "hostile work environment" claim.

Next, it is this a matter that calls for disciplinary action? Not all verbal disputes do, however, acts such as throwing chairs, slamming doors, throwing trays at garbage cans, etc., are evidence that the actor has lost his cool and is out of line. This should never happen in the workplace. If the female was close My plan as counsel would be to consult with HR and have an investigation done, as well as interview the two employees to get to the bottom of the story. At the same time, I would be investigating all relevant paperwork (such as employee handbooks, etc.) to see what our company policy is in this situation. I should add that the female employee may be punishable too, we don't know enough from the above fact pattern, but she may have been out of line by making comments to the male. That is why you need the investigation, possibly even questioning witnesses of the incident. The goal here is not to conduct the second �Spanish Inquisition� but to figure out what went wrong and then fix the problem so that it doesn't happen again. Otherwise, employees lose faith quickly in the employer's concern in these problems or even its ability to control its employees. Additionally, the employer runs the risk of later adding the hostile work environment claims brought by employees. It may seem as though the male employee is just a bully or a hothead, and that may be true. However, part of the reason for the investigation by HR is to determine whether this employee needs additional help (e.g., counseling) or whether the employee may be a risk to the safety of other employees.

Whatever you do, discipline must be consistent every time, no matter who the disciplined employee is(salesperson or administrative staff,regardless of the age, race, etc). If you do not discipline fairly and consistently, you will run the risk of incurring a later claim for discrimination.