New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog

I recently read an article on CNN that addressed the issue of a bad boss. As a New Jersey employment lawyer I have the distinct pleasure of hearing numerous friends tell their tales of a bad boss in the workplace, usually these tales are presented to me over the course of a dinner after a 10 hour day at the office. What better time? I am, of course, the sounding board and take it well. I suspect that most of the tales are told to me with the hope that someday I will look one of my friends in the face and tell them that their mean and belligerent boss can absolutely be sent to hell and never return. Here, I have the statute that regulates such conduct in my back pocket and it specifically states that bad bosses must go to hell - period.

OK, I guess you figured out that I am not serious. Well, contrary to what most employees think, there really isn't much that can be done about the bad boss. New Jersey employment laws generally do not protect employees from a bad boss. However, the employment laws in New Jersey protect employees from discriminatory conduct such as harassment. Discrimination needs to be based on a classification such as race, gender, age, religion, etc. General harassment claims are really not protected under New Jersey employment law. There are some claims that may be so egregious that an employee may state a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, but it is a rare day that a court will uphold such a claim. The point I am making is that the "bad boss" claims are not good claims unless you have a claim for discrimination. And, a bad boss is not necessarily the same as a discriminatory boss.

While it is true that a bad boss can generally harass an employee with no fear of legal repercussions, this does not mean that an employee cannot inform the company's human resources department. In my experience, most human resources take complaints of a bad boss seriously, even though the complaint may not rise to the level of discrimination prohibited under law. Employees are not without recourse to present their grievances; they just don't have the backing of the law to sue the employer.

New Jersey employment lawyers should not rely on a New Jersey's worker's compensation settlement to prove that their client is disabled under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination for failure to accommodate claims.

In Megargee v. State of New Jersey Department of Human Services, App. Div. (per curiam), the plaintiff alleged that she was disabled within the meaning of the Law Against Discrimination due to a back injury incurred on the job. Plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to afford her an accommodation under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination in 1997. The plaintiff sought to prove that she was disabled under New Jersey employment law by relying on findings in her previous worker's compensation case which was settled between the employer and employee. The trial court excluded the findings of the worker's compensation settlement. Plaintiff appealed. The appellate panel affirmed, finding the trial court did not err in excluding findings from the workers' compensation court. The appellate panel noted that the settlement had a great capacity to mislead and confuse the jury in relation to the claim that the plaintiff was disabled at the time she requested the accommodation. The settlement occurred in 1994 and the accommodation request was in 1997. The panel noted that without medical testimony as to plaintiff's condition in 1997 when the accommodation was requested, there is was no connection between the worker's compensation settlement and the 1997 request for an accommodation.

The appellate panel's finding sends a signal to New Jersey employment lawyers that in failure to accommodate cases medical testimony may be required at trial in order to prove that the plaintiff was disabled at the time the accommodation request was made.