Is co-worker job harassment illegal?

I work with an individual who does not like me. He documents everything, he does not approve of what I do and asks unrealistic jobs for me to do. This man is not my supervisor, but he acts like he is. He also goes around telling other staff that he can get me fired with all his information. I have support from my supervisor and he tells me not to worry about it, but this individual is making my life a living hell at work. Do I have any recourse? It's not sexual harassment, it's just flat harassment. I do know this man hates women, but that hasn't entered in to the specific things he says.

Rita Risser's response:

You say that the harassment is not because you are a woman, but you know that he hates women. If he has made anti-woman remarks to you or in your presence, that may be enough to link the harassment to a protected category and allow recourse through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As you will see below, however, I first recommend going through your company.

If you can't link it to gender, sex, race, age, sexual orientation or other protected category, generally harassment is not illegal. Keep in mind that U.S. employment law developed from the common law of pre-industrial England, in the days when there were no employees and employers, just masters and servants. Servants had no rights. Employees have no rights, except the rights specifically granted them by law.

In some states, such as South Carolina and Oregon, employees who are harassed may be able to sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress. But the harassment must be totally outrageous. The behavior you describe does not sound as outrageous as the cases that go to trial. For example, in one case a woman with a urinary tract infection was not allowed to go to the bathroom by her supervisor. He also denied her medical leave for emergency surgery, telling her she should reschedule it. This was held to be outrageous.

To get to your situation, you say that your supervisor supports you. He doesn't sound very supportive to me! I'm sure a policy or core value of your company is to treat co-workers with respect. Your supervisor or you should report this employee to the employee's manager, so that he can be appropriately disciplined for violating company policy. That should end the harassment. If not, go up the chain of command. If you get no help from management, look for another job. You don't want to work there under those circumstances, do you?

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