Given that we are living in the 21st Century, women have achieved much in terms of equality in the workplace, but women are still being held back because of ignorance, economics, and the fact that societal norms are slow to change. Yet “sleeping to the top” still persists as an attack on women who have made achievements based on competency and hard work.
In the case of Parker v. Reema Consulting Services, Inc, No. 18-1206 (4th Circuit Court of Appeals, 2/18/19), Evangeline Parker, worked for Reema Consulting Services, Inc. (RCSI) at a facility in Virginia. She was promoted six times from her original position as a low-level clerk, becoming an assistant operations manager in less than two years. Shortly after assuming the managerial position in March 2016, Parker learned that “certain male employees were circulating within RCSI” what she described as “an unfounded, sexually-explicit rumor” about her having a sexual relationship with Demarcus Pickett, a higher-ranking manager, in order to get promoted to a management position.
Even her senior-level boss participated in the rumor. As the rumor spread, Parker “was treated with open resentment and disrespect” from many coworkers, including employees she was responsible for supervising. In late April 2016, Moppins, the highest-ranking manager at the location, presided over a mandatory staff meeting. Parker and Pickett arrived at the same time, a few minutes late; Pickett was permitted to enter the room, but Moppins “slammed the door in Ms. Parker’s face and locked her out.” In addition to the humiliation of being physically excluded from a mandatory meeting, Parker was disturbed to learn the next day that the false rumor was discussed during the meeting. She asked to meet with Moppins to discuss the situation, but his reaction was to blame her for “bringing the situation to the workplace.”
Parker filed a sexual harassment complaint against Moppins and Jennings, who began working at RCSI at the same time as Parker and who was now a subordinate of Parker, with the human resources office. Jennings responded by filing a complaint against her, alleging that she “was creating a hostile work environment against him through inappropriate conduct.” She was told to have no contact with Jennings, an exhortation she followed despite insisting that his allegation was false. Eventually, the rumor took a life of its own, and on May 18, 2016, Parker was called to a meeting with Moppins, HR, and the in-house lawyer, where she was simultaneously given two written warnings (one ostensibly for her treatment of Jennings and the second for being insubordinate to Moppins) and fired.
After her termination, she filed a lawsuit against the company alleging a hostile environment because her co-worker spread a false rumor—and the highest-ranking manager spread it further–about her sleeping her way to the top. She stated that this would not have happened if she were a man. The district court granted RCSI’s motion to dismiss Parker’s complaint for failure to state a claim.
The district court dismissed her hostile work environment claim, concluding that while it was surely “offensive” to be the subject of sexual rumors, this is “not a harassment based upon gender.” It is, the court explained, “based upon false allegations of conduct by her. And this same type of a rumor could be made in a variety of other context[s] involving people of the same gender or different genders alleged to have had some kind of sexual activity leading to a promotion. But the rumor and the spreading of that kind of a rumor is based upon conduct, not gender.” The court also concluded that the alleged harassment was not severe or pervasive.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the court’s dismissal. First, RCSI argued that the rumor was not “gender specific” but rather was “solely about [Parker’s] conduct and insufficient to support claims of an illegal hostile work environment for women.” The appellate court dismissed this argument by pointing out that the rumor was that Parker, a female subordinate, had sex with her male superior to obtain promotion, implying that Parker used her womanhood, rather than her merit, to obtain from a man, so seduced, a promotion. Men, the unstated argument would infer, don’t use their bodies to gain favors. The Appellate Court found that “this double standard, women, but not men, are susceptible to being labelled as “sluts” or worse, prostitutes selling their bodies for gain.”
Moreover, the appellate court also found that this conduct was severe and pervasive. The actions alleged in the complaint support Parker’s claim that the harassment she experienced was severe or pervasive such that it altered the conditions of her employment and created an abusive atmosphere. She was fired for a rumor. Note that the Judges on the appellate were all male.
HR has an opportunity to train employees on the ins and outs of the #metoo movement. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey asked respondents whether they thought that the recent focus on sexual harassment had made it harder for men to know how to interact with women in the workplace. 51% of all adults questioned said yes. A 2019 Lean In and SurveryMonkey survey found that 60% of male managers they surveyed reported being “uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman, such as mentoring, working alone, or socializing together.” Senior men were 12x more likely to hesitate to have 1-on-1 meetings, 9x more likely to hesitate to travel together for work, and 6x more likely to hesitate to have work dinners. Given this, HR needs to take the bull by the horns and work to create a level playing field for women in the organization.
Additional ASE Resources
Harassment Prevention – ASE offers a harassment prevention course both publicly or on-site at your facility. The next public course will be held at ASE headquarters in Livonia on January 21, 2020. Register or learn more here. For more information on holding an on-site training, please contact Anthony Kaylin.
Source: Law.com 11/8/19, Pew Research Center 4/4/18, Lean In 2019 Survey, Forbes 8/6/18