When we talk about extreme and outrageous conduct in a harassment that’s so bad that not only is it actionable but it’s enough to make you leave, it’s important to understand that there’s no bright line.  There’s no definitive point that you know on the left you’re okay and on the right you’re not.

It varies from case to case, judge to judge, court to court.  Generally if the conduct is going to be classified as extreme and outrageous sufficient to warrant you quitting and bringing a claim for damages on top of the harassment itself, it’s got to be pretty bad.

Here’s an example, I had a young lady who was being verbally harassed by her employer, by her manager.  And it was pretty bad stuff but it was borderline.  Then one day when she said no one more time, he touched her.  He put his hand on her rear end and he moved it around in a suggestive way.  When that happened it crossed the line and when she called me and said, “Do I have to stay?” the answer was no you don’t.

And when we went to court we claimed lost wages because she was essentially forced to quit.  I had another case where a young black woman was being called girl, sort of racial words were being used that were kind of borderline but nothing that jumped over the line.  And then one day her employer crossed that line, he used a highly offensive very popular denigrating word for Black people.  And he called her that while yelling in her face.

That was over the line and that was enough to quit.  So the question is how bad does it get?  Only a judge ultimately can tell you that, but you get a sense and a feel for how bad it has to get.