Opinion ID: 2748542
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Stone’s Harassment Claims

Text: To state a claim for harassment based on a hostile work environment theory, a plaintiff must allege, inter alia, that she was harassed because of her race, affecting a condition or privilege of her employment. See Ramsey v. Henderson, 286 F.3d 264, 268 (5th Cir. 2002). To affect a condition or privilege of employment, the harassment must be “sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working 12 Case: 14-30204 Document: 00512826702 Page: 13 Date Filed: 11/05/2014 No. 14-30204 environment.” Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted). “Whether an environment is hostile or abusive depends on a totality of circumstances, focusing on factors such as the frequency of the conduct, the severity of the conduct, the degree to which the conduct is physically threatening or humiliating, and the degree to which the conduct unreasonably interferes with an employee’s work performance.” Weller v. Citation Oil & Gas Corp., 84 F.3d 191, 194 (5th Cir. 1996). Stone alleges that Lockley, her supervisor, created a hostile working environment by accusing Stone of losing an audit document, which had the effect of slowing Stone’s transfer to Houston and reducing her telecommuting privileges. She also alleges that Lockley assigned Stone more “desk audits,” which have lower assets then the audits assigned to Caucasian employees, that Lockley incorrectly called her performance into question, and that her supervisor improperly delayed approval of her audit hours, which impacted Stone’s year end production numbers. She further alleges that her telecommuting days were reduced from three days per week to one day per week due to the relationship between her former manager in New Orleans and her new manager in Houston. Additionally, Stone alleges a hostile work environment was created when Lockley and another supervisor searched for the missing document in her office without Stone’s permission. Finally, Stone alleges that the Department’s request that she obtain a doctor’s note constituted harassment. We agree with the magistrate judge that Stone failed to allege facts that, taken as true, demonstrate that she faced harassment “sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of [her] employment and create an abusive working environment.” Ramsey, 286 F.3d at 268. As such, the magistrate judge properly dismissed Stone’s harassment claims. 13 Case: 14-30204 Document: 00512826702 Page: 14 Date Filed: 11/05/2014 No. 14-30204