Kansas City Hostile Work Environment Lawyers
Workplace stress, anxiety and legal concerns can reach overwhelming proportions when faced with a hostile work environment. The legal team at Carter Law Offices knows that a hostile work environment is far more than merely having an issue with the boss; it is a workplace in which an employee is intimidated, harassed or discriminated against.
Our lawyers represent mid-career professionals, hourly supervisors, healthcare staff and corporate employees across the Kansas City metro area, including Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. We are committed to improving your situation to make your life better, and we combine big-firm power with the assurance that you will never be treated as a file number.
What Is Legally Required To Prove A Hostile Work Environment?
To make out a claim for a hostile work environment under Missouri or federal employment law, an employee must meet three independent legal standards.
- Severity or pervasiveness: The harassment is not one bad day or a single incident. It must be sufficiently severe to create a hostile, offensive or intimidating work environment that can significantly impact your daily performance.
- Targeted discriminatory intent: The hostility cannot simply be the result of a “difficult boss.” The hostile behavior can be directed at you by a superior, a co-worker or a third party like a vendor, provided the employer is aware of it and fails to stop it. This intent must be directed at you as a person of a specific legally protected classification, such as your sex, race, age, religion, disability or pregnancy, under the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA) or Title VII.
- Employer liability and failure to act: You have to show that company management or HR was on notice that the ongoing harassment was happening and systematically failed to take prompt, effective corrective action to stop it.
Unfortunately, proving these factors against a large employer may be difficult. Still, we have the experienced trial team with a proven track record of taking on careless corporations and their large legal teams.
Proving A Hostile Work Environment In Missouri: The 4-Step Evidence Framework
If you are facing discrimination or harassment, taking immediate action is the key to building a successful case. Let us explain and enforce your rights through this crucial framework:
- Log every incident immediately: At home – never on a work computer – keep a detailed written journal, noting the exact dates, times, words spoken and witnesses for every offensive encounter.
- Keep all digital and physical evidence: Save copies of discriminatory emails, texts, Slack/Teams messages and performance reviews. Print them or forward them to a personal email immediately so you don’t lose access if you are locked out of the network.
- File a formal, written complaint: While reporting the behavior internally is required for establishing company notice and liability in coworker harassment claims, Missouri law does not contain a blanket requirement forcing an employee to give the employer a chance to fix the situation before a legal violation can occur, particularly when a supervisor is the primary harasser.
- Document the company’s response: If they refuse to consider your report, conduct a superficial investigation, fire you, demote you or reduce your salary in retaliation, then you have just documented your fifth major component of a powerful legal claim.
By collecting all this information, you put yourself in a strong position against an employer that might try to sweep things under the rug.
Hostile Work Environment FAQs
At Carter Law Offices, we have stood by many employees who have faced harassment, discrimination and mistreatment in a hostile work environment. We offer free consultations to explain what legal options are available in your case. We have noticed many of our clients have similar questions, including:
What specific behaviors constitute offensive conduct in the workplace?
Offensive behavior in the workplace can be legally actionable and constitute discriminatory behavior based on a state or federally protected classification, including age, sex, race, color, national origin, religion, ancestry and disability.
Offensive conduct can include verbal harassment, physical touching or interference with job duties, unwanted sexual advances, patterns of intimidation, microaggressions, exclusion, and marginalization. Employees could also experience offensive workplace behaviors online through inappropriate imagery, videos, calls or digital stalking.
What legal obligations do employers have to address and prevent hostile work environments?
Businesses can take preemptive measures to prevent and reduce hostile work environments through robust antidiscrimination policies, antiharassment training and clear, ethical guidance. The employer must investigate claims of a hostile working environment and take prompt remedial action. Numerous federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Equal Pay Act (EPA), provide employees with robust protections and require employers to eliminate hostile work environments.
What protections are in place for employees who report hostile work environments?
Many of our clients fear they will be fired for reporting toxic conduct and hostile work environments. However, employees are protected from retaliation, including unwelcome changes in schedules, transfers to new departments, demotions, firings and other retaliatory actions. If an employer responds to an employee’s complaint of workplace discrimination and hostility by punishing the victim, the employer may face an additional lawsuit.
Contact Our Hostile Work Environment Attorneys In Missouri
If you have experienced a hostile work environment, our employment lawyers can help you put a stop to it. To schedule a free consultation at our law firm, contact us online or call us at 816-283-3500.