Can I Sue My Employer For Emotional Distress?

As an employee, you are an important part of the company you are working in, and your managers need to take care of your well-being because working long hours can be stressful enough; now, imagine you have to deal with your employer’s outrageous behavior in the workplace.

It is important to know that there are several laws that state all employers must provide a safe and calm environment for their employees; so, if you are working in an environment that causes you physical and psychological harm, you have the right to sue for the possible damages.

Emotional distress at the workplace impacts employees’ lives in different aspects; it can reduce performance, cause stress, anxiety, depression, and physical issues. If you have discussed such problems with your managers, and they don’t take your complaints seriously, you may be now wondering if you can sue your employers for emotional distress.

Suppose you are experiencing outrageous behaviors in the workplace. In that case, you can sue your employer by filing a personal lawsuit to recover damages because anyone in the work environment who causes emotional distress should be held accountable.

In this article, we will answer all questions about suing your employers due to emotional distress and guide you to take decisive steps if you already decided to sue your manager.

Definition of Emotional Distress

Emotional distress is psychological and mental suffering due to a bad workplace, which has different symptoms, such as stress, depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, sadness, etc. It also can affect employees’ physical health due to panic attacks, headaches, and insomnia.

As an employee, when you face stressful situations in your work environment and violent behaviors, you are most likely to experience emotional distress.

Some of the best examples of emotional distress can be the fear of getting destructive feedback, anxiety about going to work and facing such a violent place, mental anguish, mental breakdowns due to a toxic workplace, etc.

Finally, if you think you need to visit a therapist because you can’t handle your workplace or employer’s behavior anymore, this situation is considered emotional distress.

Different Types of Emotional Distress

It is interesting to know that emotional distress has two different forms, and the law will define each based on their effects and sources.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)

This kind of distress happens when an employer’s bad behavior hurts employees emotionally, and everyone notices that in the workplace. An excellent example of such actions can be harassment and discrimination that are done intentionally. 

Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED)

When an employer is negligent, such emotional distress happens, which means the company and managers are not loyal to the specific laws that dictate their roles in the organization, so they are in charge of any possible damages because of their actions.

What Are the Damages of Emotional Distress?

The impact of emotional distress on a human’s mental and physical can be so bad that you can’t put a price on them, and the payment of such damages is based on the seriousness of the emotional injury, which the court will determine.

There are some factors that influence emotional distress damage, including:

• Possible physical injuries
• The defendant’s outrageous behavior
• Continuation of emotional distress
• Amount of harm suffered

As you may know, the purpose of knowing emotional distress damages is to recover the possible injuries it has on victims’ personal and work lifestyles.

There are different ways that emotional distress can affect a person’s life, which we gathered some of the most common ones below:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Mood swings
• Anger and rage
• Headaches

Finally, remember that emotional distress damages are subjective, and employees may have different experiences of possible damages, so you need to be able to share detailed information about what hurts you in the workplace if you want to sue your employer.

Can You Sue Your Employer For Stress and Anxiety?

We all know that not all workplaces are the same, and some of them are more stressful than others, which are most likely to cause emotional distress.

However, you should note that not every stressful situation meets the legal definition of workplace emotional distress.

Therefore, if you want to sue your employer but don’t know if you can legally do so, you can start asking yourself the questions below:

• Are you experiencing any kind of discrimination or harassment in the workplace?
• Does your employer illegally target you or a co-worker?
• Are you suffering from emotional distress because of workplace harassment?
• Is your employer or manager hurt you with offensive behavior?

Suppose your answers to such questions are positive, or you find these situations familiar. In that case, you should start collecting evidence and then contact an employment lawyer to file a lawsuit and sue your employer.

Note that you will be able to sue your employer when your emotional and mental distress is from your workplace; also, your adverse reactions need to be strong to sue because you can not sue your employer just because they said something that hurts your feelings.

What to Do Before Suing Your Employer?

It is interesting to know that most workplace lawsuits are filed by employees against their employers and managers for discrimination, fraud, mental distress, harassment, etc.

When you want to sue your employer for emotional distress, consider some points that help you get the best results. Let’s see what you should do before suing your employer.

The case validity

As mentioned earlier, you need to ensure your situation is acceptable to the court before suing your employer; otherwise, suing is not what you should do. A valid sue case must meet some circumstances, including:

• Discrimination
• Harassment
• Wrong termination

So, if your case has one or all of the mentioned behaviors and actions, you can start looking for an employment lawyer to take further steps.

Enough evidence

If you want to win the court, you must collect useful evidence because a witness or an agreement of other employees will not help you win the case.

As you may know, the lack of evidence can reduce your chances of suing your employer and may put your career at risk.

You can also ask your lawyer to help you obtain any video footage or anything that can help you offer valid evidence.

Finalize your claim

If you want to protect your interests and win your sue case, you should carefully determine the type of your claim before going to court because it helps you efficiently categorize your case and develop specific arguments.

If you are not sure about your claim, you can consult a professional lawyer to help you.

How to Prove An Emotional Distress Claim

If you want to win the court successfully, you should prove that your mental health has been affected by workplace problems because such a lawsuit can be challenging as emotional distress is not always tangible.

However, knowing how to prove an emotional distress claim helps you in this way.

Prove a Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress claim

When you want to sue your employer for negligence distress, you need to prove that your employer couldn’t take preventative action because your claim will only be accepted if you prove that workplace issues caused you mental illness.

Note that as an employee, you can sue your employer if you have witnessed the impact of negligent action that harm a coworker because of a safety violation.

Prove an Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress claim

If you want to prove your IIED claim successfully, you need to show that your employer’s behavior was malicious.

Note that your employer will be liable only if you made a report against your employer, and they ignored the action.

So, if you can provide records and evidence that shows your manager’s bad behaviors, you have more chances of winning your suit.

FAQs

1- What are examples of emotional distress at work?

Some of the best examples could be bullying or harassment, critical incidents, poor communication, fear of job security, etc.

2- What are 3 common signs of emotional distress?

Mental symptoms can be insomnia, depression, and overthinking.

3- Can I sue my employer only if they hurt my feelings?

This is not a valid reason; if your manager hurts your feelings just because you are sensitive, you can start looking for a new job instead of suing your employer because you must prove that you are suffering from emotional distress to sue your manager. 

Conclusion

We all know how stressful work can be, but employers must manage the work environment and provide a safe place that avoids any mental distress for employees.

Employees can easily sue you if they prove they are suffering from mental distress caused by the workplace.

So, if you can’t take emotional distress any longer, you can sue your employer; just be careful to take essential steps before and while filing a lawsuit, which we mentioned in this article.