Cite as: 524 U. S. 775 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Co., 12 F. 3d 668, 675 (CA7 1993); Taylor v. Metzger, 152 N. J. 490, 505, 706 A. 2d 685, 692 (1998) (emphasizing that a super-visor's conduct may have a greater impact than that of colleagues at the same level); cf. Torres, 116 F. 3d, at 631. See also White v. Monsanto Co., 585 So. 2d 1205, 1209-1210 (La. 1991) (a supervisor's harassment of a subordinate is more apt to rise to the level of intentional infliction of emotional distress than comparable harassment by a coemployee); Contreras v. Crown Zellerbach Corp., 88 Wash. 2d 735, 740, 565 P. 2d 1173, 1176 (1977) (same); Alcorn v. Anbro Engineering, Inc., 2 Cal. 3d 493, 498-499, and n. 2, 468 P. 2d 216, 218-219, and n. 2 (1970) (same). The agency relationship affords contact with an employee subjected to a supervisor's sexual harassment, and the victim may well be reluctant to accept the risks of blowing the whistle on a superior. When a person with supervisory authority discriminates in the terms and conditions of subordinates' employment, his actions necessarily draw upon his superior position over the people who report to him, or those under them, whereas an employee generally cannot check a supervisor's abusive conduct the same way that she might deal with abuse from a co-worker. When a fellow employee harasses, the victim can walk away or tell the offender where to go, but it may be difficult to offer such responses to a supervisor, whose "power to super-vise—[which may be] to hire and fire, and to set work schedules and pay rates—does not disappear . . . when he chooses to harass through insults and offensive gestures rather than directly with threats of firing or promises of promotion." Estrich, Sex at Work, 43 Stan. L. Rev. 813, 854 (1991). Recognition of employer liability when discriminatory misuse of supervisory authority alters the terms and conditions of a victim's employment is underscored by the fact that the employer has a greater opportunity to guard against misconduct by supervisors than by common workers; employers have greater opportunity and incentive to screen them, train them, and monitor their performance.
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