The Book of Poop

Thanks to Daniel Schwartz over at Connecticut Employment Law Blog for the heads-up about his post today on the recent disability case of Murphy v. Beavex, Inc.  The plaintiff-employee apparently had several "bowel incidents" at work.  Co-workers left "The Book of Poop" (purportedly a children's book, though Schwartz could find no evidence of this book's existence) at his desk and called him names such as “Mr. Sh_tty,” “The Sh_tmeister,” and “Poopy.”  The court found that this was not enough to create a hostile work environment:

In considering the remaining alleged incidents in a light most favorable to [the Plaintiff], the court concludes that a reasonable jury could not find such conduct so severe and pervasive as to have altered his working conditions.  While it was insensitive for [the Plaintiff]’s coworkers to call him names and leave a scatological children’s book near his workspace, such teasing does not rise to the level of severity and pervasiveness required to defeat a motion for summary judgment.

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