Co-Worker's Behavior Is Unacceptable

Most work places likely deal with an occasional obscenity from a co-worker by letting it slide. But constant use of foul language has no place in civilized offices and most employers frown on it.

But this worker is wondering what to do about the worker who just won't end his stream of four-letter words even after being warned by the company. And worse, the company now won't do anything about it either.

Dealing with an obscene co-worker is not pleasant. I work in a professional environment, an IT professional services company. This is the male assistant, in his 30s, to the head of finance, a woman. I am a woman, one of 16 in a group of 20 that works together. On a daily basis, this guy hits the wall of his office, which is also my office wall, yells in very angry tones at his computer screen, uses foul language that he mutters under his breath as he walks in the hallway in front of my office. I have asked a man in my department to speak to him twice and then finally reported it to HR. He stopped for about three months but is back to doing it again. The other women are afraid to speak up as he is their supervisor and the head of their department loves him. Now my supervisor says that I am a negative influence in the department. I am going to leave my job over this, but I am wondering whether I have a legal case against the company for permitting a hostile work environment?

Diana Seltzer, a Washington lawyer who at various times has represented both corporate interests and workers, said that if this worker is intent on leaving her employer because of the repeated obscene comments by her co-worker, she should not just walk out the door.

"She should negotiate a severance," Seltzer says. "She should check to see whether there is a harassment policy in the [company] handbook. Is there is a workplace violence policy?

"I don't know why they're not firing this guy," Seltzer says. His behavior is "totally unacceptable. They really have a risk of liability."

As a result, Seltzer says, the woman should "use these claims as leverage [for a severance]. She or an attorney should write the firm to put them on notice about the violations of their policy," assuming there is one against unacceptable foul language in the workplace and violence, the assistant repeatedly banging on the adjoining wall of the woman's office.

If the woman fails to win a satisfactory severance, Seltzer says the worker could file suit. "She could claim a constructive discharge," Seltzer says, referring to "workplace conditions that are so intolerable you have no choice but to leave. But you would have to go to court to prove that."

Kenneth Bredemeier has six years of experience writing about the workplace. On the Job, a column addressing real worker questions about office relationships, corporate policies and workplace law, is written exclusively for washingtonpost.com.

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