San Jose Workplace Harassment Lawyers

What Is Workplace Harassment?

Workplace harassment is a form of unlawful discrimination that involves unwelcome conduct directed at an employee because of a characteristic protected under California or federal law. For employees in San Jose, these protections apply across workplaces and industries, including technology, healthcare, education, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, construction, transportation, government, financial services, and professional services.

Under California law, workplace harassment may be unlawful when the conduct creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) provides broad protections against harassment based on protected characteristics, including:

• Race and ethnicity
• Sex, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation
• Religion
• National origin and ancestry
• Disability and medical conditions
• Age (40 and over)
• Marital status
• Pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding
• Veteran or military status

San Jose Gender Harassment

If you have experienced harassment at work because of your gender, sex, gender identity, or gender expression, you may have protections under California and federal employment laws.

Gender harassment, sometimes called gender-based harassment, occurs when someone is subjected to unwelcome conduct because of their gender or gender identity. The conduct does not have to be sexual. It may instead involve offensive stereotypes, insults, intimidation, or degrading treatment based on assumptions about how someone of a particular gender should look, behave, or perform their job.

Gender harassment can occur between coworkers, between a supervisor and an employee, or involve other people encountered through the workplace. San Jose employees who experience this type of conduct may have legal options when the behavior violates California or federal law.

San Jose Hostile Work Environment Harassment

A hostile work environment may arise when unlawful harassment becomes sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter an employee’s working conditions and create an abusive workplace.

Examples may include offensive remarks, slurs, unwanted touching, sexual comments, sexually suggestive materials, threats, intimidation, or repeated offensive jokes. Ordinary workplace disagreements, isolated annoyances, and minor slights generally do not constitute unlawful harassment on their own.

Whether conduct creates an unlawful hostile work environment depends on the circumstances, including its frequency, severity, and effect on the employee’s working conditions. Employers may also have responsibilities to take reasonable steps to prevent and correct unlawful harassment when they know or should know it is occurring.

San Jose Pregnancy Harassment

California employees are protected from unlawful harassment related to pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and associated medical conditions.

Pregnancy harassment may include offensive comments, ridicule, intimidation, or other unwelcome conduct directed at an employee because they are pregnant, have recently given birth, are breastfeeding, or have a pregnancy-related medical condition.

Harassment may come from a supervisor, manager, coworker, or, in some circumstances, a nonemployee such as a customer or client. San Jose employees who experience pregnancy-related harassment may have protections under California and federal law.

San Jose Quid Pro Quo Harassment

The Latin phrase quid pro quo means “something for something.” In the workplace, quid pro quo sexual harassment generally occurs when employment benefits or consequences are conditioned on an employee accepting or rejecting unwanted sexual conduct.

For example, a supervisor or other person with workplace authority might offer a promotion, raise, desirable assignment, or other benefit in exchange for a sexual favor. It can also involve threatening termination, discipline, demotion, or another negative employment action if an employee refuses a sexual advance.

Job applicants may also experience quid pro quo harassment when a hiring decision or employment opportunity is conditioned on accepting sexual advances or demands.

San Jose Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment can occur in workplaces throughout San Jose and may involve verbal, physical, visual, or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. Examples may include:

• Unwanted sexual advances or requests for sexual favors
• Sexual jokes, comments, or repeated inappropriate remarks
• Inappropriate or unwanted touching
• Displaying or sharing sexually offensive images, messages, or other materials

Two commonly recognized forms of workplace sexual harassment are:

• Quid pro quo: When employment benefits or consequences are conditioned on an employee’s acceptance or rejection of unwanted sexual conduct.
• Hostile work environment: When unwelcome conduct based on sex becomes sufficiently severe or pervasive to create an abusive working environment.

San Jose Workplace Bullying

Bullying can make a workplace stressful, intimidating, and difficult to navigate. It may involve repeated insults, humiliation, threats, intimidation, exclusion, or other abusive behavior.

Workplace bullying by itself is not necessarily unlawful under California employment law. However, bullying may become actionable when the conduct constitutes harassment or discrimination because of a legally protected characteristic, such as race, sex, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, or age.

The circumstances surrounding the behavior therefore matter. Conduct that may initially appear to be workplace bullying could potentially involve unlawful harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.

San Jose Harassment Based on Race or National Origin

San Jose employees are protected from unlawful workplace harassment based on race, color, ancestry, and national origin.

This harassment may include racial or ethnic slurs, offensive jokes, degrading stereotypes, mocking an employee’s accent or cultural background, displaying offensive symbols, or other unwelcome conduct based on a protected characteristic.

Harassment does not have to come from a supervisor. Depending on the circumstances, unlawful conduct may involve managers, coworkers, customers, clients, vendors, or other people encountered through an employee’s work.

San Jose Disability and Medical Condition Harassment

Employees with qualifying physical or mental disabilities and protected medical conditions have important rights under California and federal law.

Disability-related harassment may include mocking or insulting an employee because of a disability, making offensive comments about a medical condition, or subjecting an employee to other hostile conduct because of a protected disability or condition.

Harassment should be distinguished from an employer’s separate obligations concerning reasonable accommodations and the interactive process. An employee experiencing disability harassment may also have other employment-law claims depending on how the employer responds to their condition or accommodation requests.

When Is Workplace Harassment Illegal in San Jose?

Not every rude, unfair, or inappropriate workplace interaction constitutes unlawful harassment. Whether harassment violates California or federal law depends on the circumstances.

Important factors can include:

1. Whether the conduct is connected to a legally protected characteristic.
2. Whether the conduct is unwelcome.
3. The severity and frequency of the conduct and the overall circumstances.
4. Who committed the harassment and how the employer responded after learning about it.

California law does not require employees to endure repeated misconduct before they can have legal protections. A single incident of harassing conduct may be sufficient to create a hostile work environment when the conduct has unreasonably interfered with an employee’s work performance or created an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Employer Responsibilities for Preventing Harassment

California employers have responsibilities to take reasonable steps to prevent and correct unlawful workplace harassment. Depending on the employer and circumstances, those responsibilities may include:

• Maintaining appropriate anti-harassment policies
• Providing legally required harassment-prevention training
• Establishing procedures for employees to report misconduct
• Responding appropriately to harassment complaints
• Taking effective corrective action when unlawful conduct occurs

An employer’s potential liability can depend on who committed the harassment, whether the employer knew or should have known about the conduct, and what steps the employer took in response.

Retaliation for Reporting Harassment Is Also Illegal

San Jose employees may hesitate to report harassment because they are worried about losing their jobs or facing other consequences. California and federal laws provide protections against retaliation for engaging in certain protected activities, including:

• Reporting suspected harassment or discrimination
• Participating in an investigation or legal proceeding
• Supporting or assisting with another employee’s discrimination or harassment complaint

Retaliation can take many forms. Depending on the circumstances, it may include termination, demotion, reduced hours, undesirable assignments, unwarranted discipline, or other actions that negatively affect an employee because they exercised protected rights.

If you believe you have experienced workplace harassment or retaliation in San Jose, an employment attorney can evaluate what happened, explain the protections that may apply, and help you understand your options for moving forward.