Employment Law QuestionsCategory: DiscriminationIs it kind of discrimination if my coworker keeps stalking me at work?
Uyen Nguyen asked 3 years ago

Recently, I noticed that my coworker has kept checking on me frequently. I’m working the night shift in the healthcare field. Most nights there are only a few of us at work. Anytime, I’m at my bench, the guy pretends to go to the restroom and pass by to check on me. Sometimes, he also pretended to use a stapler or look for some supplies to come to my bench and check on me since there are a lot of staplers and supplies at his bench. Before, he will check on me directly. After I reported to my manager that he keeps checking on me, he starts to pretend like he going to the restroom or looking for supplies to do so. I feel very depressed and uncomfortable to be watched by a man in the middle of the night like that. I am a female. The worst thing was coming up to me a few weeks ago. When I got off from work, I found my car broken. I called polices and they checked on the company’s camera. They saw a guy who broke my car and left without searching and based on their opinion that it looks like the person is one of the employees at my medical center. I requested the report, but the police still don’t provide it to me. It’s about a month already. I would like to see the camera because based on what the police officer was talking to his colleague. The description matches my coworker. I am so scared and worried now. If it was him, I would be in danger. I don’t know when he will attack me violently. Does it count for discrimination or harassment at work? Is the law able to protect me from this?

1 Answers
Stevens and McMillan Law Firm Staff answered 3 years ago

Harassment is a form of discrimination. In order for harassment to be the basis of a lawsuit, it needs to be conduct that is against someone because they belong to a protected class (eg. race, sex, religion etc) and the conduct needs to be severe and pervasive.

In your case, the conduct is because of your sex, which is a protected category, but it is hard to determine if it is severe enough or pervasive enough without more information. Obviously, if this person broke into your car, then that is very severe. Unfortunately, based on what you wrote, there is not enough information to know if this was the same person who broke into your car.

If you find out more information, or this individual continues to engage in conduct that you find to be offensive, please give our law firm a call and we can talk about it in more detail.