Abbott Defeats Account Manager’s Sexualized Workplace Claim

A former Abbott Laboratories Inc. endovascular account manager failed to prove that a supervisor’s alleged encouragement of building client relationships through “sexualization” was part of a broader hostile work environment, an Illinois federal judge found.

The ruling provides an example of the high bar workers must clear to prove severe or pervasive harassment under anti-discrimination laws. To establish a claim, an employee must show that a supervisor or colleague’s misconduct was based on a protected trait like sex and created a workplace filled with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that affected their employment.

Rachael Rose, whose responsibilities included going out ...