Is An Employer Responsible...

Okay - I could do a couple of posts about a couple of different things since I have quite a few "pressing concerns" as my brother would say ;) But as for now - I will only elaborate on the question I'm pondering in my head which is, is an employer responsible for the well being of their employees while they are at work and what are the guidelines?Obviously we know that sexual harrassment in the work place has fortunately been addressed and now has certain rules and guidelines. But is the way that one person treats another (meaning emotional abuse - treating someone rudely repeatedly, bullying, being disrespectful - ultimately just being plain mean to another co-worker for no apparent reason) - are these things addressed in certain laws or guidelines & are employers held accountable and responsible?

The reason I am pondering this at this point is due to a very negative situation and experience that I experienced with my last employer. Now that I am out of the situation (been laid off) and am able to put more of the pieces together, I feel I should have done more concerning the issue. Basically I had a co-worker that was beyond difficult to work with to the point that I left in tears one day as well as just physically and emotionally feeling bad on some others. I had to deal directly with her on a regular basis and if I asked a question I was often responded to in a negative way with responses like "how long have you worked here?". I felt she would purposefully belittle me, point out flaws and even make them up to make me look bad - especially in front of others.

Now there are things like facebook - where communication with people you would not normally communicate or be able to communicate with is possible. So when I knew that the person who had worked six months & left before me was on facebook, I connected & got the same thing I experienced. The people I worked with had joked that "so in so ran her off" but the reason they had given me that the woman had left was completely different (and didn't make any sense). So after her confirmation, there was also another story added to the mix. Except this woman's story was a little different. She was the woman before the woman before me and while I just sent an email to the owner of the company recently after I was let go, this woman had sent multiple complaints which obviously never got responded to being that she eventually left. She was not alone in her complaints while working there - there was another co-worker that is still working there that has complained multiple times due to this workers behavior, comments etc.

So...where do you go with this other than this here Skirt blog? I'm not sure. But now that I'm laid off, maybe I'll have time to figure it out. Thanks out there to the listeners ;)