PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
CYNTHIA A. ZISKIE,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
No. 06-2060
NORMAN Y. MINETA, Secretary,
Department of Transportation,
Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.
Claude M. Hilton, Senior District Judge.
(1:05-cv-01229-CMH)
Argued: September 26, 2008
Decided: November 14, 2008
Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and DUNCAN,
Circuit Judges.
Affirmed in part, vacated and remanded in part by published
opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge
Niemeyer and Judge Duncan joined.
COUNSEL
ARGUED: Ellen Kyriacou Renaud, SWICK & SHAPIRO,
P.C., Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Kevin J. Mikolashek,
2 ZISKIE v. MINETA
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Alexan-
dria, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: David H. Shapiro,
Richard L. Swick, SWICK & SHAPIRO, P.C., Washington,
D.C., for Appellant. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attor-
ney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.
OPINION
WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:
Plaintiff Cynthia Ziskie appeals the grant of summary judg-
ment on her Title VII claims in favor of defendant the Secre-
tary of Transportation, who administers the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), Ziskie’s former employer. She alleges
that the defendant created a sexually hostile work environ-
ment and retaliated against her for asserting her rights.
Because in considering the evidence the district court seemed
to feel itself constrained in a way that is inconsistent with cir-
cuit precedent and with our civil justice system’s basic
notions of relevance, we vacate and remand on the hostile
work environment claim. We affirm on the retaliation claim.
I.
On appeal of a grant of summary judgment, we "view the
facts and draw reasonable inferences ‘in the light most favor-
able to the party opposing the [summary judgment] motion.’"
Scott v. Harris, 127 S. Ct. 1769, 1774 (2007) (quoting United
States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655 (1962) (per
curiam)). Cynthia Ziskie worked as an air traffic controller
(ATC) at the FAA’s Washington Air Route Traffic Control
Center (the Washington Center) in Leesburg, Virginia. The
Washington Center manages the flow of air traffic to and
from other regional centers. Ziskie became an ATC in 1982;
she served in that position until her retirement in June 2005.
ZISKIE v. MINETA 3
Beginning in 1991 and continuing into 2002, Ziskie had a
part-time schedule, and worked Mondays, Tuesdays, and
Wednesdays. On April 1, 2002, employees at the Washington
Center were notified that part-time employment would no lon-
ger be available beginning May 5, 2002. Ziskie asked for an
extension of her part-time schedule in order to make childcare
arrangements, but her request was denied. After she was
moved to a full-time schedule, Ziskie called in sick for eight
straight weeks every Thursday and Friday, the days she previ-
ously had off. As a result, she was reprimanded for abusing
sick leave. Part-time schedules were reinstated in the fall; Zis-
kie worked only one full-time week during the entire period
that part-time schedules were unavailable.
Shortly after the cancellation of part-time schedules, Ziskie
complained in a memo that she was experiencing sexual
harassment at the Washington Center. Ziskie began keeping
a diary in which she recorded co-workers’ comments that she
found offensive. On May 30, 2002, Ziskie filed a formal com-
plaint with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office
of Civil Rights.
Ziskie alleged, as she alleges in the present litigation, that
she and all other female ATCs at the Washington Center
"have been and are being subjected to a continuing atmo-
sphere of harassment and intimidation on-the-job by male
ATCs with the acquiescence [of] management" and that she
had suffered retaliation for complaining about the harassment.
Ziskie stated in her complaint that "unremitting use of profan-
ity, sexual innuendos, mass flatulence, and other behaviors
designed and intended to make female workers uncomfortable
and ill at ease" created a hostile work environment.
There are essentially four different features of the work-
place that Ziskie points to as creating a hostile work environ-
ment. First, profanity and other crude language and behavior,
such as belching, were commonplace. For example, male con-
trollers often referred to pilots as "dick head pilot[s]." Ziskie
4 ZISKIE v. MINETA
heard one co-worker call a supervisor a "stupidvisor"; another
told a female supervisor to "fuck off." Male controllers found
it amusing to intentionally pass gas in the presence of other
employees, including Ziskie.
Second, Ziskie points to a number of sexist comments
directed to other employees or not directed to anyone in par-
ticular. Some of these comments Ziskie heard herself. They
include: a co-worker called another woman "an alien with big
boobs"; a male controller talked about a party where women
were wearing "tit-teasing sweaters"; when two male co-
workers discussed a former female co-worker, one called her
a "chick," and the other said she had breast enhancement; and
male controllers, including a male supervisor, laughed when
a male controller made a sexual comment about a female
supervisor. Other conduct Ziskie did not witness, but was
described in affidavits of other female employees submitted
by Ziskie. Examples include: when a female controller was
pregnant, male controllers made fun of her breasts; someone
wrote on the men’s room wall that a female employee "has
big tits"; male ATCs told female co-workers that they should
be taking care of their children instead of working; and male
employees told a female co-worker that they were upset that
she wore shorts instead of pants.
Third, Ziskie claims that FAA Supervisors gave preference
to male employees in making their schedules. She recalls a
number of instances in which she feels male employees unjus-
tifiably received days off that she had requested, or otherwise
got preferential treatment over her or other female employees.
Finally, Ziskie claims she was frequently treated with hos-
tility by a number of her male co-workers. A male controller
loudly questioned how Ziskie had been able to keep her job.
A supervisor told her that she should quit because her hus-
band worked. Ziskie’s treatment by co-workers worsened
after she began to complain to supervisors about her treat-
ment, which she did repeatedly. For example, a male control-
ZISKIE v. MINETA 5
ler working a different sector of airspace who was "handing
off" a plane into Ziskie’s sector called Ziskie a "fucking
moron." After she complained to management, several other
male co-workers called each other "moron" jokingly in front
of Ziskie. Afterwards, she contends, co-workers who were
supposed to be cooperating with or assisting Ziskie during
flight control procedures actively thwarted her.
In one instance, she says a co-worker removed the equip-
ment Ziskie needed to do her job; in another, a male controller
handed off a plane into Ziskie’s sector, putting it on a colli-
sion course with other planes which Ziskie had to divert.
Another co-worker told Ziskie, when she tried to look at the
work logs in which the arrival and departure times of employ-
ees were noted, that she had "been warned"; when she later
tried to look at them again, he yelled at her. In November
2003, Ziskie found that her tires had been slashed in the park-
ing lot at work. There is, however, nothing in the record indi-
cating who slashed them, or why. Several co-workers made
negative or mocking remarks to Ziskie about the complaints
she had made, and she heard indirectly about other negative
remarks made about her complaints.
Ziskie complained about all of the above conduct to man-
agement. A study commissioned by management concluded
that seven employees believed the bay in which Ziskie
worked had problems involving gender relations. However,
no one was disciplined as a result of the complaints or the
study.
On July 22, 2005, in an extensive opinion, the DOT’s Civil
Rights Office made a formal finding that no discrimination
had occurred. The agency determined that both males and
females at the Washington Center used profanity and other
offensive language, and that Ziskie could not show that any
harassment was caused by her gender or by her sexual harass-
ment allegations. It found that the behavior that Ziskie
described would not substantially affect a reasonable person’s
6 ZISKIE v. MINETA
work environment, as required by Oncale v. Sundowner Off-
shore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75 (1998). Regarding Ziskie’s
claim of retaliation, the agency concluded that the letter of
reprimand that Ziskie received was because of her abuse of
sick leave, not her assertion of her rights.
On October 24, 2005, Ziskie filed the present Title VII
action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Virginia. The district court granted summary judgment for
defendant on the hostile work environment claim on the
ground that the treatment experienced by plaintiff was not
pervasive or severe enough to create an abusive work envi-
ronment. The district court granted summary judgment for the
defendant on the retaliation claim on the ground that plaintiff
had not shown an adverse employment action taken against
her, or a causal connection between her protected activities
and any asserted adverse action. In the memorandum accom-
panying its order, the district court stated that "the offensive
language and conduct described in the affidavits of [Ziskie’s]
co-workers and not experienced firsthand by [her] has no
bearing on [her] Title VII claim in this case and are disre-
garded by the Court." Ziskie now appeals.
II.
We first turn to Ziskie’s hostile work environment claim.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that "[i]t shall
be an unlawful employment practice for any employer . . . to
discriminate against any individual with respect to [her] com-
pensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment,
because of . . . sex." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). To make out
a claim against her employer for creating a hostile work envi-
ronment because of sexual harassment under Title VII, a
plaintiff must show "that the offending conduct (1) was
unwelcome, (2) was based on her sex, (3) was sufficiently
severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of her employment
and create an abusive work environment, and (4) was imput-
able to her employer." Ocheltree v. Scollon Productions, Inc.,
ZISKIE v. MINETA 7
335 F.3d 325, 331 (4th Cir. 2003) (en banc) (citing Spicer v.
Va., Dep’t of Corr., 66 F.3d 705, 710 (4th Cir. 1995) (en
banc)).
The district court held that Ziskie did not show that her
treatment was severe or pervasive enough to rise to the level
of an abusive work environment. Defendant argues that the
district court’s refusal to consider the affidavits of other
female employees in reaching this conclusion was correct,
"[f]or it is clear that only offensive language used in the plain-
tiff’s presence is relevant to her hostile environment claim."
Brief of Appellee at 17. This argument is inconsistent with the
principles we have established in our precedent. In Spriggs v.
Diamond Auto Glass, 242 F.3d 179 (4th Cir. 2001), we
rejected the contention that only conduct directed at the plain-
tiff could be considered in evaluating a hostile work environ-
ment claim. Rather the inquiry was the nature of the
workplace environment, "and whatever the contours of one’s
environment, they surely may exceed the individual dynamic
between the complainant and his supervisor." Id. at 184.
Likewise, in reversing a grant of summary judgment for the
defendant in a Title IX claim in Jennings v. University of
North Carolina, 482 F.3d 686 (4th Cir. 2007) (en banc), we
reaffirmed this principle, and noted that in reviewing hostile
environment cases "[a]ll the circumstances are examined . . . .
Evidence of a general atmosphere of hostility toward those of
the plaintiff’s gender is considered in the examination of all
the circumstances." Id. at 696; see also Harris v. Forklift Sys.,
Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 23 (1993) ("[W]hether an environment is
‘hostile’ or ‘abusive’ can be determined only by looking at all
the circumstances.").
We reiterated this principle most recently in E.E.O.C. v.
Sunbelt Rentals, Inc., 521 F.3d 306 (4th Cir. 2008), where we
held that testimony by the defendant’s customers that the
workplace in question was rife with hostility to Muslims was
relevant to the plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim. Id.
8 ZISKIE v. MINETA
at 317 (citing Jennings, 482 F.3d at 695; Spriggs, 242 F.3d at
184). Even though the plaintiff had not experienced the spe-
cific conduct at issue in the customers’ testimony, their state-
ments were nonetheless relevant because they supported
plaintiff’s claims.
The district court’s rejection of the affidavits submitted by
Ziskie’s co-workers regarding conduct not witnessed by Zis-
kie is inconsistent with the principles expressed in these cases.
When examining all the circumstances of a plaintiff’s work-
place environment, evidence about how other employees were
treated in that same workplace can be probative of whether
the environment was indeed a sexually hostile one, even if the
plaintiff did not witness the conduct herself. Hostile conduct
directed toward a plaintiff that might of itself be interpreted
as isolated or unrelated to gender might look different in light
of evidence that a number of women experienced similar
treatment.
Of course, conduct experienced by the plaintiff may well be
more probative of a hostile workplace than is conduct the
plaintiff did not herself witness. But that goes to the weight
evidence should be given, not its relevance or admissibility.
A blanket refusal to consider conduct not witnessed by the
plaintiff is inconsistent with the Federal Rules of Evidence
and Civil Procedure. Under the Rules of Evidence, "[a]ll rele-
vant evidence is admissible" unless specifically prohibited,
Fed. R. Evid. 402, and "‘[r]elevant evidence’ means evidence
having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is
of consequence to the determination of the action more proba-
ble or less probable than it would be without the evidence."
Fed. R. Evid. 401. These principles apply to summary judg-
ment motions; under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
oppositions to summary judgment may be supported by affi-
davits if those affidavits are "made on personal knowledge,
set out facts that would be admissible in evidence, and show
that the affiant is competent to testify on the matters stated."
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e).
ZISKIE v. MINETA 9
The Rules of Evidence thus adopt a presumption in favor
of admitting relevant evidence, and leave it up to the finder
of fact to assign it proper weight. This approach is preferable
to per se restrictions cordoning off certain types of evidence
from district court consideration; such limitations are incon-
sistent with the proper relationship between appellate and trial
courts. Judges and juries do not merely assign weight when
finding facts at trial; trial courts perform this task in the first
instance when assessing genuineness and materiality on sum-
mary judgment. It is not the role of appellate courts to say
consider A but not B. That would shrink the universe of rele-
vant evidence from which truth may be distilled.
In this case, the district court appeared to misunderstand the
relevance of the affidavits of Ziskie’s co-workers. Even if Zis-
kie did not witness the conduct described therein, it is none-
theless relevant because it could contribute to the evidence
offered to show that the workplace environment at the Wash-
ington Center was indeed a hostile one. Evidence that many
of Ziskie’s co-workers experienced treatment similar to that
claimed by Ziskie could lend credence to Ziskie’s claims
about her own treatment, show that the harassment she alleges
was indeed pervasive, or support a finding that she was
treated badly by co-workers because of her gender, and not
some other reason.
Because of the possibility that the district court when eval-
uating defendant’s summary judgment motion did not appro-
priately consider the affidavits from plaintiff’s co-workers,
which are relevant to whether the plaintiff’s work environ-
ment was hostile, we vacate and remand to the district court
on the hostile work environment claim so that the district
court can assess the affidavits and determine what weight they
should be given.
III.
Although we believe a remand is necessary for the reasons
outlined above, that disposition should not be misconstrued.
10 ZISKIE v. MINETA
The same circuit precedent that suggests a remand likewise
suggests the weaknesses of plaintiff’s claim.
Specifically, even under the evidentiary framework set
forth herein, Ziskie will still need to show a triable issue on
the second and third elements of a sexually hostile work envi-
ronment claim: that the alleged harassment was because of
her gender, and that the conduct was severe or pervasive
enough to alter her working conditions. Our analysis is simply
meant to offer guidance on whether or not Ziskie’s claims are
sufficient to permit the case to proceed to trial.
A.
The conduct of which Ziskie complains must be gender-
based. In Smith v. First Union National Bank, 202 F.3d 234
(4th Cir. 2000), we held that "[a]n employee is harassed or
otherwise discriminated against ‘because of’ his or her gender
if, ‘but for’ the employee’s gender, he or she would not have
been the victim of the discrimination." Id. at 242. A plaintiff
"may prove sex-based discrimination in the workplace even
though she is not subjected to sexual advances or proposi-
tions," but can succeed only by showing that she "is the indi-
vidual target of open hostility because of her sex." Ocheltree,
335 F.3d at 331 (citing Smith, 202 F.3d at 242-43). Ziskie
alleges that she was the target of open hostility, but the evi-
dence must allow a reasonable jury to conclude that her mis-
treatment was due to her gender.
In this regard, harassment due to personality conflicts will
not suffice. Some persons, for reasons wholly unrelated to
race or gender, manage to make themselves disliked. That
Ziskie did not get along with others is clear, but it is anything
but clear that this unfortunate state of affairs had much to do
with sex. The first sexual harassment allegation by Ziskie that
is on record was made only after her part-time schedule was
cancelled. While Ziskie complains that the Washington Cen-
ter was permeated with foul language for her entire time
ZISKIE v. MINETA 11
there, virtually all of the specific incidents of harassment
directed at her occurred after the summer of 2002, when she
abused her sick leave in order to retain her old part-time
schedule when she was supposed to be working full-time. So
far as the record shows, Ziskie’s co-workers were working
full weeks while she was enjoying four-day weekends. For
reasons unrelated to sex, this behavior was unlikely to endear
Ziskie to her colleagues.
Co-workers might also not take warmly to the fact that Zis-
kie was meticulously recording in her diary every conceivably
offensive comment they made and every instance in which
they did not help her as much as she thought was appropriate.
Her fellow workers might well resent her openly examining
the log files to determine when they arrived at and left work.
The record indicates that Ziskie’s co-workers believed that
she was "keeping book" on them, as Ziskie’s supervisor stated
in his deposition. Indeed, some of the harassment of which
Ziskie complains directly relates not to gender but to the fact
that Ziskie’s colleagues thought that she was gratuitously
tracking them – for example, she points to the fact that one
colleague on three separate occasions told her not to look at
the log files. While other workplace rules or regulations may
or may not protect Ziskie’s conduct, these do not relieve her
of the need to show that her unhappy experience at work was
because of her sex.
The possibility that Ziskie’s treatment was not related to
her gender but rather to co-workers’ specific personal issues
with her is underscored by the fact that most of the comments
and behavior of which Ziskie complains were not about her
sex. Ziskie’s complaints include that she was called a "fuck-
ing moron," that her co-workers failed to cooperate with her
flight control procedures, and that a co-worker enjoyed pass-
ing gas in her presence. Such behavior may well be hostile,
but it is a far cry from the obviously sex-related conduct in
Jennings, where a male soccer coach incessantly talked about
his female players’ sex lives and bodies, see 482 F.3d at 691-
12 ZISKIE v. MINETA
94, or in Ocheltree, where male employees repeatedly demon-
strated sexual practices on a mannequin in front of the plain-
tiff. See 335 F.3d at 328. Ziskie was not subjected to repeated
use of sexual epithets directed at her, unlike the plaintiffs in
Spriggs or Sunbelt Rentals, who were subjected to barrages of
demeaning epithets. See Spriggs, 242 F.3d at 184-86; Sunbelt
Rentals, 521 F.3d at 310-12.
Certainly, some conduct of which Ziskie complains was
gender-related — such as Ziskie’s co-workers’ discussions
about sexual practices, and the use of offensive words like
"chick" to describe a woman. But on remand Ziskie must
demonstrate under the standards set forth in section II that a
reasonable jury could see the hostility as a product of gender
animus rather than the kind of personality conflict that per-
vades many a workplace.
B.
Ziskie must also address on remand the third element of
any hostile sexual environment claim: whether the conduct
was "severe or pervasive" enough to create an abusive work
environment. There are "both subjective and objective com-
ponents" to this element. Ocheltree, 335 F.3d at 333 (citing
Harris, 510 U.S. at 21-22). The environment must be per-
ceived by the victim as hostile or abusive, and that perception
must be reasonable. Harris, 510 U.S. at 22. "[T]he objective
severity of harassment should be judged from the perspective
of a reasonable person in the plaintiff’s position, considering
‘all the circumstances.’" Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore
Servs., Inc., 523 U.S. 75, 81 (1998) (quoting Harris, 510 U.S.
at 23).
For present purposes we accept that Ziskie perceived her
treatment to be severe. But the alleged harassment, even if
because of gender, must still be objectively as severe as that
in cases that we have allowed to go to a jury. Even under the
more permissive standards set forth in section II, Ziskie must
ZISKIE v. MINETA 13
still address on remand the salient differences between the
facts of this case and the hostile work environment claims that
have succeeded in our circuit.
Severity inquiries in our earlier cases have often involved
a disparity in power between the harasser and the victim. In
Jennings, we observed that the victim was a seventeen year-
old girl, and the harasser was a 45 year-old man, who, as the
coach of the victim’s soccer team, had a huge amount of
power over the victim. 482 F.3d at 697. In Ocheltree, the vic-
tim’s supervisor often participated in the harassment the vic-
tim alleged. 335 F.3d at 328-29. In reversing a grant of
summary judgment for the defendant in E.E.O.C. v. R&R
Ventures, 244 F.3d 334 (4th Cir. 2001), we emphasized that
the harasser "was an adult male in a supervisory position over
young women barely half his age." Id. at 340. The employee
in Spriggs was harassed by his immediate supervisor. 242
F.3d at 182. Unlike those cases, Ziskie alleges harassment
almost entirely by her co-workers, not her supervisors. She
alleges one or two instances of supervisor harassment, such as
when a supervisor told her that she should not work because
her husband had a job, but this does not remotely resemble the
repeated harassing conduct by someone in a position of
authority that was described in other cases.
Quite simply, Ziskie does not allege that anyone so much
as placed his hand upon her. She does not allege that anyone
repeatedly questioned her about her sex life, as did the
harasser in Jennings. See 482 F.3d at 696-98. She does not
assert that co-workers went out of their way to disgust her and
make her uncomfortable by graphic demonstrations of sexual
acts, as did the harassers in Ocheltree. See 335 F.3d at 328.
She does not claim that she was subjected to demeaning epi-
thets, unlike the plaintiff in Spriggs, see 242 F.3d at 184-86
(racial epithets), or Sunbelt Rentals, see 521 F.3d at 311 (reli-
gious epithets). She does not suggest that she was subject to
frequent comments about her body in front of co-workers, as
was the plaintiff in R&R Ventures. See 244 F.3d at 337-38.
14 ZISKIE v. MINETA
What Ziskie does describe is a workplace in which
employee interactions could sometimes assume a coarse or
boorish tone. But while no one condones boorishness, there is
a line between what can justifiably be called sexual harass-
ment and what is merely crude behavior. Profanity, while
regrettable, is something of a fact of daily life. Flatulence,
while offensive, is not often actionable, for Title VII is not "a
general civility code." Oncale, 523 U.S. at 81. The occasional
off-color joke or comment is a missive few of us escape.
Were such things the stuff of lawsuits, we would be litigating
past sundown in ever so many circumstances.
Our discussion here is not meant to be conclusive with
regard to Ziskie’s hostile environment claim. If the problems
alleged reflect no more than sporadic or occasional instances
or the kind of tensions that accompany any stressful work-
place environment, that would be one thing. If the district
court were to find on remand that there existed an environ-
ment where female air controllers found their working condi-
tions altered and compromised on account of a severe or
pervasive atmosphere of gender animus, that would be some-
thing else. The question is one of degree: any employee must
be expected to accommodate the normal run of aggravations
that are part of holding a job, but no employee should have
to suffer severe or pervasive gender bias that would prevent
her from fulfilling the vital role of ensuring public safety in
the air.
Thus on remand, the district court must decide whether,
given the evidence that properly belongs in the summary
judgment record, Ziskie’s perception of a hostile sexual envi-
ronment claim was an objectively reasonable one. For exam-
ple, several of the co-worker affidavits allude to problems in
the coordination of handoffs between one air traffic control-
ler’s sector and another. It is possible that it can be fairly said
as a matter of law that these are occasional instances that are
insufficiently oppressive or inadequately related to gender to
ZISKIE v. MINETA 15
constitute harassment, but the district court must assess them
under the correct standard and in the appropriate context.
The reason that Ziskie’s perception of harassment must be
objectively reasonable to create a cause of action under Title
VII is to prevent courts from being drawn further and further
into the workplace and having to delineate ever more intricate
rules about what kinds of interactions are or are not accept-
able between co-workers. There are limits to the extent that
the refined sensibilities of judges can be embodied in general
workplace etiquette. Title VII "does not reach genuine but
innocuous differences in the ways men and women routinely
interact with members of the same sex and of the opposite
sex." Oncale, 523 U.S. at 81. Our cases have sought to distin-
guish between those situations that indeed present serious
impediments to minority and female workers and those situa-
tions when human nature simply is not at its best. Thus while
Ziskie will have the benefit of proper evidentiary standards on
remand, she must still surmount the objectively "severe" or
"pervasive" evidentiary threshold set forth by the Supreme
Court.
IV.
Finally, we turn to Ziskie’s retaliation claim. To succeed on
a retaliation claim, plaintiff must prove that (1) she engaged
in a protected activity; (2) the employer acted adversely
against her; and (3) there was a causal connection between the
protected activity and the asserted adverse action. See Hol-
land v. Washington Homes, Inc., 487 F.3d 208, 218 (4th Cir.
2007).
At the outset we note that there is disagreement about
whether the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the scope of
the adverse action requirement in Burlington Northern &
Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006), applies
to federal employees. We do not reach this question, for we
conclude that Ziskie’s claim of retaliation fails regardless
16 ZISKIE v. MINETA
because Ziskie is unable to show that the adverse employment
action she alleges was causally connected to her complaint of
discrimination.
Ziskie alleges that her co-workers retaliated against her for
asserting her Title VII rights, but there is scant support for this
claim in the record. She points, for example, to her tires being
slashed, and alludes to the possibility that this was done by a
co-worker, but adduces not a scintilla of evidence showing
who did this, or why. She claims that the letter of reprimand
she received on August 12, 2002 was sent in retaliation for
her claims of sexual harassment. But the record reflects that
the reprimand was issued because of Ziskie’s repeated abuse
of her sick leave in order to avoid having to work full-time
despite the cancellation of part-time schedules. Workers are
shielded from retaliation on account of their assertion of
rights protected under Title VII. But a complaining worker is
not thereby insulated from the consequences of insubordina-
tion or poor performance. Accordingly, we affirm the district
court in its grant of summary judgment on the retaliation
claim.
V.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the dismissal of Zis-
kie’s retaliation claim and vacate and remand on her hostile
environment claim. On remand, Ziskie will have the opportu-
nity to demonstrate under appropriate evidentiary standards a
triable issue on the various elements of her hostile sexual
environment claim. But as Supreme Court and circuit prece-
dent make clear, plaintiff has a task ahead on the animus and
severity prongs of her action. Whether or not this case should
proceed to trial is, of course, for the able district court to
determine in the first instance. We in no way fault the court
for failing to anticipate decisions that issued after its own rul-
ing. The judgment is hereby
AFFIRMED IN PART,
VACATED AND REMANDED IN PART.