In the California case of Okonowsky v. Garland, a male supervisor in a federal prison (a lieutenant) used his private Instagram account to post sexually offensive content about a female prison psychologist.  The District Court dismissed the psychologist’s hostile work environment claim, holding that the posts occurred entirely outside the workplace, were made on the lieutenant’s personal Instagram account, and were not sent or otherwise displayed to the psychologist.  The Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the Title VII claim and found that, in view of the generally permanent nature of the sexual posts and the references to the workplace on the Instagram account, the psychologist’s work environment could have been made hostile, especially since she had to interact with the lieutenant on a regular basis, and despite the fact that the lieutenant’s conduct occurred “off-site.”Continue Reading Recent Judicial Decisions Highlight the Importance of Anti-Harassment Training