Jordan v. Alternative Resources Corp.

Robert Jordan (plaintiff) worked as a network technician for Alternative Resources Corporation (ARC) (defendant). ARC assigned Jordan to work at an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) (defendant) office. One night in an IBM network room, Jordan’s coworker, Jay Farjah, was watching a news report about the capture of two Black men who shot 13 people in public locations. Jordan heard Farjah say, “They should put those two black monkeys in a cage with a bunch of black apes and let the apes f-k them.” At least two of Jordan’s coworkers later told Jordan that Farjah had made many similar offensive comments. Jordan reported Farjah’s comment to two IBM supervisors, Mary Ellen Gillard and C. J. Huang, and an ARC manager, Sheri Mathers. In the following month, Gillard delayed Jordan’s work shift by over two hours and gave him additional assignments. At an office party, Huang allegedly gestured toward Jordan and made a derogatory remark. Mathers terminated Jordan because Jordan was disruptive, his position had reached its end, and IBM employees and Jordan did not like each other. Jordan sued IBM and ARC, claiming they unlawfully retaliated against him in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The district court dismissed Jordan’s complaint, and Jordan appealed. Jordan argued that even if a hostile work environment did not exist, his complaints were necessary to prevent a hostile environment from developing in the future.