Opinion ID: 168502
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Employee Harassment

Text: 27 McGowan also contends that the City sanctioned work site harassment by her supervisors and fellow employees. McGowan asserts this harassment created a hostile work environment that itself constituted a materially adverse action. As discussed above, the complained-of harassment must be sufficiently severe to qualify as a materially adverse action under Title VII. In addition, to succeed on a retaliation claim based on a hostile work environment, a Title VII plaintiff must present evidence that supervisory or management personnel either (1) orchestrated the harassment of the plaintiff by other employees, or (2) knew about the harassment and acquiesced in such a manner as to condone it. Gunnell v. Utah Valley State College, 152 F.3d 1253, 1265 (10th Cir.1998). The behavior complained of must render the workplace . . . permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult, that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment. Harris v. Forklift Sys., 510 U.S. 17, 21, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993) (internal quotations omitted). The district court concluded none of the allegations supported a finding of a hostile work environment. 28 We agree that McGowan has not met her burden of showing that the harassment she complains of amounted to a materially adverse action. For the most part, the harassing behavior by line officers was not directed at McGowan, but rather at her son and his girlfriend. The record shows the harassing behavior discontinued when brought to the attention of the police chief. The record does not support a conclusion that harassment was orchestrated by supervisory personnel or that the City tacitly approved of it. Additionally, many of McGowan's allegations such as her complaints regarding the highlighting of her time slips and French's petty criticism of her work are of a trivial nature and do not rise to a claim of an abusive materially adverse work environment. 29 In conclusion, the record does not contain disputed facts sufficient to show that the conduct of the City created a hostile work place sufficient to constitute a materially adverse action under Title VII.