Abusive Supervisors and Emotional Distress
by Frank L. Kollman

I genuinely believe that the workplace should be a civil environment where employees are free from sexual harassment, vulgar language, and mental abuse. I also believe that supervisors deserve to be free from incompetent employees, lazy employees, and bad employees in general.

By the same token, I do not believe that judges and juries should be called upon to decide whether the workplace is functioning according to some statutorily or judicially-imposed standard of good conduct. It is difficult enough to run a business today given the current labor laws, including OSHA, without courts deciding whether a supervisor was "nice enough" when he talked to an employee. Courts just shouldn't meddle in workplace demeanor.

The Texas Supreme Court, however, has taken a giant step toward imposing a standard of workplace civility on employers in that state, the same state with one of the highest execution rates in the U.S. The Court was asked to decide whether employees could sue their employer for emotional distress where the supervisor, a former U.S. Army sergeant, treated them like boot camp recruits. According to the employees, "sarge" yelled, cursed, screamed at them, and "charged them" without hitting them, causing them embarrassment and humiliation.

Instead of dismissing the lawsuit, which would have been the correct decision, the Court adopted a standard of supervisory misconduct barring "terrorization" of employees. The Court said that firing the employees would have been preferable to abusing them, begging the question why the employees did not quit if they were being treated so badly.

In the past, employees with abusive supervisors quit, sought unionization, or learned to live with it. Now, at least in Texas, they can sue for mental distress. This is just another example of judges trying to impose good manners and good taste, or at least wheat they believe to be good manners and good taste. The United States Supreme Court, in free speech cases, has expressly refused to regulate good taste. The Texas court should have done the same.

If you have an abusive supervisor, fire him. Good employees are hard enough to retain without forcing them to quit. Just be aware that, in light of this Texas case, there may be even more incentive to get rid of supervisors who lead by terror.

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