Total Articles: 2
Take this job and shove it!
When country music star Johnny Paycheck sang those famous words, he wasn’t singing about an employee who quit her job after being sexually harassed at work, but they fit that scenario nevertheless. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, an employee who tells her employer to “take this job and shove it” because of alleged sexual harassment can recover for a claim of “constructive discharge” (i.e., things were so bad at work, I was forced to quit), but only if she can prove a supervisor’s “official” act is the final straw that caused her to quit. Although neither management nor employee rights advocates see this case as a victory, the Supreme Court’s decision helps clarify whether and how constructive discharge claims factor into supervisor harassment cases.
Supreme Court Recognizes Affirmative Defense in Sex Harassment Constructive Discharge Cases (pdf).
The Supreme Court recently held that an employee's failure to seek recourse under her employer’s nondiscrimination/non-harassment policy may bar a claim that she was forced to resign because of intolerable sexual harassment.
