THE OH SO ILLEGAL LOVE(?) LETTER
As EEOC tells it, a supervisor sent one of his employees female the following email: “Is this a Micro-aggression, me and Mikey were trying to decide? [m]an, you got a big b**ty for a white girl!!! LMAO [abbreviation for “laughing my a** off”]… [t]hought that would make you smile!! [h]ave an awesome day!” In a previous email he signed it “yo Daddy!”. When she complained about this to higher management, the supervisor was reassigned away from her. But driven by what he thought were his romantic feelings short-time later he handed her this letter after standing in front of her desk silent for a few minutes:
“…you have always held a special place in my Heart! That’s why I was crushed the way all this sh*t went down. I was not mad or pissed off, (for that long) you hurt my Heart, because of the relationship we had. ….it was like a kick in the nutz [sic] with both feet, or it was more like you reached in and ripped my heart out?? Oh well, sh*t happens right, I guess that’s what I get for assuming our friendship was, never really what it was. …well I have learned my lesson, and it will never happen again!!! Thus the reason I decided to write you this letter, it’s hard for me [], I think about you every day and I wonder what is [Complainant’s name] thinking, this whole thing has my brain has been [sic] going in 100 different directions, and wondering why this went down the way it did, I mean, was I like part of the master plan for you to get your promotion, did you want this go down the way it did, or were you told to file on me?… was it your decision to file on me?… Regardless the outcome of this investigation, and regardless of our relationship in the future [], you will always hold that special place in my heart because I truly care about you!… you were one of the main reasons I loved coming to work every day, just so I could see your face, and hear you tell me Hello…”
When the employee’s complaint of sexual harassment and reprisal got to EEOC, it ruled the supervisor “retaliated against Complainant for reporting his inappropriate email both when he sent the letter which questioned whether she had filed a complaint against him in order to get promoted and then later when Complainant overheard the [Supervisor] telling people that she should not have filed a complaint against him and generally causing negative rumors about her.” It also found the supervisor had subjected her to sexual harassment labelling his letter “stalker-like” and concluding “its immoderate, inappropriately personal language from a workplace superior, was alone sufficient to create an intimidating and offense working environment for a reasonable person in Complainant’s shoes by implying that the sender sought a personal, sexual relationship.”
EEOC awarded her $20,000 in compensatory damages for putting up with this.
Before we close, it is worth reminding that to sustain a sexual harassment charge an employee must show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that: (1) she belongs to a protected class; (2) she was subjected to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature; (3) the harassment complained of was based on sex; (4) the harassment affected a term or condition of employment, either unreasonably interfering with the work environment or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment; and (5) there is a basis for imputing liability to the employer.
For details on this particular case see Candice B., v. Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General, DoJ (Federal Bureau of Prisons), EEOC Nos. 2023005066 and 2024000935 (2023)
