O'BRIEN v. Department of Agriculture

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that verbal harassment and increased scrutiny were not severe or pervasive enough to give rise to a hostile work environment
• recognizing also that “[t]he frequency of the alleged harassment is only one of the relevant factors in determining whether it was sufficiently severe or pervasive”
• concluding a plaintiff’s “bare assertion and speculation” were insufficient to establish a genuine issue of material fact
• noting that “increased scrutiny might, at some point, amount to a hostile work environment,” but rejecting hostile-work-environment claim for lack of evidence of a discriminatory purpose on part of supervisor
• finding the allegations, when “distilled to verbal harassment and increased scrutiny,” were insufficient to support a claim of constructive discharge
• affirming a summary judgment ruling despite evidence showing that plaintiffs’ supervisory embarrassed, isolated, and ostracized them, scrutinized their work, and increased their workload after the claimants engaged in protected activity

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).