Tangible actions include hiring, firing, failure to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, and decisions causing a significant change in benefits. Their occurrence forecloses the Faragher-Ellerth defense.
A threat not carried out is not tangible.
Alternative Names:
Tangible Action|Significant Employment Change
Why it Matters?
The analysis comes first in any supervisor harassment case because a tangible action makes the employer strictly liable and renders the complaint procedure irrelevant. Constructive discharge occupies contested ground, with the Supreme Court holding it is not automatically tangible where no official act precipitated the resignation. That leaves the defense available where an employee resigned without any formal action against them.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Why is the analysis performed first?
Is constructive discharge tangible?
