Opinion ID: 616359
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Actions in the Aggregate

Text: While the actions fail individually to provide a basis for a reasonable jury to conclude that Tepperwien was subjected to material adverse employment actions, they also fail in the aggregate. Individually the actions were trivial, and placed in context they remain trivial. Taken in the aggregate, the actions still did not adversely affect Tepperwien in any material way. Zero plus zero is zero. MacDraw, Inc. v. CIT Grp. Equip. Fin., Inc., 138 F.3d 33, 38 (2d Cir.1998); cf. Gorence v. Eagle Food Ctrs., Inc., 242 F.3d 759, 763 (7th Cir.2001) (And it is simply not true, we want to emphasize, that if a litigant presents an overload of irrelevant or nonprobative facts, somehow the irrelevances will add up to relevant evidence of discriminatory intent. They do not; zero plus zero is zero.). The context is also significant. The security unit at Indian Point was akin to a law enforcement or quasi-military unit, with a chain of command, lieutenants and chiefs, handcuffing exercises, the deployment of weapons, and the use of BREs. The task of securing a nuclear power plant raised significant safety concerns not found in most work environments, and, understandably, there was little tolerance for mistakes and rule violations, or even perceived mistakes. It is not surprising that Tepperwien was treated in a rough and tumble manner rather than with kid gloves or in a genteel fashion. See Hicks, 593 F.3d at 165 (noting that `context matters' when evaluating whether a action is materially adverse (quoting Burlington Northern, 548 U.S. at 69, 126 S.Ct. 2405)). Viewing all of the actions in the aggregate, we conclude that a reasonable employee in Tepperwien's situation would not have been deterred from engaging in protected activities. Indeed, while the test is an objective one, it is relevant that Tepperwien himself was not deterred from complaininghe complained numerous times. Moreover, Tepperwien acknowledged, after all the incidents and when it was clear that he was leaving Entergy, that he would consider working for Entergy again and that overall he was satisfied with his job at Entergy. Accordingly, we hold that the district court properly granted Entergy's motion for judgment as a matter of law dismissing the retaliation claim.