There are a few words in the English language that most of us won’t utter in any venue, let alone at work. They are so highly charged and potentially offensive that any use of them, in almost any context, utterly fails any version of risk/reward analysis.
But not everyone, of course, understands this rather obvious point, and those who don’t have a penchant for landing their employers in extremely hot legal waters. Take, for example, the supervisor who calls his subordinate a “fucking nigger.” Though racially offensive language uttered only once would not normally constitute illegal discrimination, a word like “nigger” is different, as the state’s Court of Appeals recently concluded. “That term inflicts such cruel injury by its very utterance. It is degrading, it is humiliating, and it is freighted with a long and shameful history of humiliation, the ugly effects of whcih continue to haunt us all. The words have no legitimate place in the working environment — indeed, they have no legitimate place — and there is no conceivable justification for their use by a workplace supervisor,” the court wrote ealier this month.
The court suggested that, although it may be among the most offensive words in the English language, “nigger” is not be the only one that, once uttered, might expose employers to substantial liability. Similar words are readily identifiable by all. Employers should make certain that all employees, particularly their supervisors, are aware that none of them may be used in the workplace under penalty of severe discipline. These and related race and sex issues should be part of the thorough anti-discrmination and anti-sexual harassment training programs that all employers are wise to implement.