Working from home might protect you from a stressful commute or an uncomfortable desk chair, but it does not necessarily protect you from workplace harassment.
Harassing conduct can follow remote employees into video meetings, emails, messaging platforms, texts, and other digital spaces. If you are experiencing remote workplace harassment in Maryland, you may have legal protections and options for seeking compensation or other legal relief.
Seeking protection from harassment typically starts with a report. But to safeguard your interests, you must be careful about how you report.
You might have to open your case by alerting someone in human resources, or it may be safer to start with a legal claim instead. Either way, your best first step is to speak to one of our award-winning workplace harassment lawyers in Maryland.
Smithey Law Group LLC is a leading Maryland law firm that focuses exclusively on employment and labor law. We are highly experienced and can help you develop the best strategy for holding your employer accountable.
What Is Workplace Harassment?
Maryland law prohibits employers from engaging in harassment of employees.
State law defines harassment as certain unwelcome and offensive conduct based on a protected characteristic, such as:
- Sex,
- Race,
- Color,
- Religion,
- Ancestry or national origin,
- Age,
- Marital status,
- Sexual orientation,
- Gender identity,
- Disability, or
- Military status.
If submitting to the offensive conduct is a condition of your employment, or if the conduct creates a work environment a reasonable person would call hostile or abusive, you likely have a right to relief.
Federal law also prohibits unlawful workplace harassment based on many of the same protected characteristics.
Behaviors that commonly contribute to harassment may include:
- Offensive jokes,
- Slurs,
- Threats,
- Ridicule,
- Insults,
- Intimidation,
- Displays of offensive objects or pictures, and
- Interference with someone’s work performance.
Whether conduct crosses the line into unlawful harassment depends on the circumstances.
What Can Remote Workplace Harassment Look Like?
Harassment and remote work can intersect in many ways.
For example, potential harassment could involve:
- Sexually explicit or offensive material sent through work email,
- Inappropriate comments about a person’s racial background during video meetings,
- Messages about a person’s disability through workplace chat systems,
- Unwanted sexual advances through text messages, and
- Other offensive comments about a protected characteristic during virtual communications.
Context matters. An isolated, unpleasant interaction may not always establish a harassment claim. Under Maryland law, however, harassment need not be severe or pervasive.
Whether conduct is unlawful depends on the nature of the conduct, its connection to a protected characteristic, and the circumstances as a whole.
What About Sexual Harassment and Remote Work?
When people hear the word “harassment,” they often think of sexual harassment, and they often think of a boss asking a subordinate employee for romantic contact.
If your supervisor asks you out through a virtual chat space, that may be one form of sexual harassment and remote work, but that is not the only type of sexual harassment.
Under federal law, sexual harassment can be any offensive conduct based on a person’s sex or gender.
It could include:
- Jokes about a person’s gender during work calls;
- Graphic, sex-based images sent by email;
- Exposing private body parts during video meetings;
- Excluding an employee from a virtual space because of their gender;
- Discussing sex- or gender-based stereotypes during video conferences; and
- Chat comments on someone’s appearance or desirability.
The harassment does not have to have a romantic motive, and you do not have to be the target of the harassment to complain. If the conduct is offensive enough to make your work environment hostile, you might have a right to legal relief.
When Is an Employer Liable for Harassment?
Employer liability can depend on who committed the harassment, what happened, and how the employer responded.
Harassment in Maryland
Maryland law provides that an employer is liable for harassment when:
- The harasser is someone who undertakes or recommends tangible employment actions affecting the employee (e.g., hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, and reassignment);
- The harasser is a supervisor; or
- The harassment occurred due to the employer’s negligence.
Employers cannot stick their heads in the sand while others mistreat their employees. In many cases, an employer must take an active role in stopping harassing behavior in virtual and physical workspaces.
Harassment on a Federal Level
Federal standards sometimes differ. An employer may be automatically liable for supervisor harassment that results in a negative employment action, such as termination, failure to promote, or lost wages.
But when harassment creates a hostile work environment without a tangible employment action, an employer may have a defense if it can establish that:
- It reasonably tried to prevent and promptly correct the harassment, and
- The employee unreasonably failed to use available preventive or corrective opportunities.
For harassment by non-supervisory employees or certain non-employees under the employer’s control, federal liability may arise when the employer:
- Knew or should have known about the harassment, and
- Failed to take prompt and appropriate corrective action.
These rules make reporting particularly important.
How Do You Report Remote Workplace Harassment?
When you experience workplace harassment remotely, talk to an attorney about the specific facts and how to protect yourself.
An internal report may be an important part of addressing workplace harassment, but you do not necessarily have to report harassment to HR before pursuing an administrative charge or other legal claim. The appropriate step depends on the applicable law, the employer’s policies, the identity of the harasser, and the circumstances.
Making an Internal Report
If it is safe and practical to do so, report misconduct internally by reviewing your employer’s harassment and complaint policies.
Your employer may direct employees to report harassment to:
- HR,
- A supervisor,
- Another manager, or
- A designated complaint officer.
If you report harassment and the employer fails to respond appropriately, that response may be relevant to whether the employer can be held liable and to the remedies available, depending on the circumstances.
However, an internal reporting route may not always be reasonable or workable. For example, an employee may have concerns when the person designated to receive complaints is the harasser. The reasonableness of the employee’s and employer’s actions depends on the circumstances.
Filing a Government Complaint
If an internal complaint is not safe, you may skip straight to filing an administrative complaint with the state or federal government.
Maryland claims
In Maryland, the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (MCCR) enforces state protections against unlawful employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
The first step in its complaint process is submitting a preliminary questionnaire inquiry within two years of the harassment. The MCCR can then investigate your complaint and help you resolve it.
Federal claims
Federal claims typically involve filing a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). For most Maryland private-sector employees, the federal deadline is generally 300 days, although the applicable deadline depends on the law, employer, and claim. Federal employees follow a different administrative process.
Filing deadlines make it important not to assume that an ongoing HR investigation gives you unlimited time to consider outside legal options. Filing deadlines can also affect your right to sue.
Filing a Lawsuit for Harassment
Depending on the facts and applicable law, litigation may be an option in your case. For federal claims, the employee generally must first file an EEOC charge before suing.
After the EEOC issues a notice of right to sue, an employee normally has 90 days to file the lawsuit. In certain circumstances, an employee may request a notice of right to sue before the EEOC completes its investigation. Maryland law also provides procedures for pursuing civil actions involving unlawful employment practices.
Because filing requirements and deadlines can affect a person’s rights, you should immediately speak to an attorney about your options. Our workplace harassment lawyers in Maryland can help determine which state or federal procedures may apply to your particular circumstances.
Collecting Evidence for Your Report
When reporting harassment, consider keeping accurate records of what happened.
You may want to keep:
- Emails,
- Messages,
- Meeting invitations,
- Screenshots, and
- Other communications relevant to what occurred.
You want to lawfully preserve relevant evidence and avoid altering original communications. We can help you gather all the necessary evidence in the appropriate way.
Talk to Our Workplace Harassment Lawyers
Remote workplace harassment can create difficult questions. You may wonder whether a message was serious enough to report, whether you should go to HR, or how to prove your case. Fortunately, you do not have to answer those questions by guessing or figuring the answers out on your own.
Smithey Law Group is a top employment and labor law firm that represents clients throughout Maryland. Founding attorney Joyce Smithey has extensive employment-law experience, has taught employment and labor law topics, and has published extensively in the field.
Our firm’s attorneys have received professional recognition from many respectable outlets, and we are ready to help you. Please call us or contact us online today.
