Because the author of the column is female, most likely.  And no, someone grabbing at you and yelling at you should definitely not make you think they're going to harm you, especially when in a public space like that and the person is not a stranger.  Since the law ends up using the phrase "reasonable person", it is likely that anything that made it to court would get thrown out. The supervisor is an issue, but he is an issue for the company, not the courts. The employee can and should remove herself from the situation, which is easily done.  If there is anything that should be go further, it would be that she made a complaint that was supposedly not investigated.  That's still not likely to get far.  Employees don't have to be sweet to each other, and it's not illegal to allow them to be jerks to each other. By real issues, I just mean that the police force and the court system shouldn't be getting clogged up with complaints like this. It's almost irresponsible to file the suit.