Worker Claims Co-Workers’ NFL Fantasy Draft Snub Is Bullying

This oddball case began with the extreme distress an accountant felt at not being invited to participate in her co-workers’ annual NFL fantasy draft. The accountant made her feelings known by ‘aggressively’ ‘cornering’ the CFO in a washroom and ‘aggressively’ claiming she was the victim of harassment and bullying. She was let go a week later. The employer claimed her OHS reprisal complaint was frivolous, noting that the fantasy draft wasn’t even an official company event and insisting that the accountant was fired because she couldn’t keep up with her growing workload. The OHS investigator agreed and summarily tossed the case. But he later admitted that he had ignored certain evidence, like the fact that the accountant had been invited to the draft in the past. The Alberta Labour Board said that a hearing was needed to straighten out the mess and consider whether ‘subjective feelings’ experienced as a result of social exclusion at work really is a form of harassment and bullying [Little v. Rolling Hills Energy Ltd., Board File OHS 2019-6, May 28, 2021].