"I'll be the judge of that!"

Could the use of a racial slur one time by a coworker be enough to constitute actionable harassment? In this week’s Job Judge, Karen Michael discusses a case out of California where an employee was subjected to the “N” word by a coworker one time in 2015. Nine years later the case is headed to trial, and the jury will decide whether the employee was subjected to a hostile work environment as a matter of law and whether Human Resources retaliated against her in their actions of addressing the employee’s claims.

Karen also discusses in her “Ask the Job Judge” segment, a case involving a 56-year-old man who engaged in alleged sexual behaviors towards a younger female coworker after hours and the employee is questioning whether to report his behavior. Karen gives advice on how to address it.