Workers’ Compensation for Work-Related Depression and Anxiety?

A United Airlines employee who was diagnosed with depression and anxiety as a result of her job was not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, according to a recent ruling by the California Court of Appeals. Essentially, “her own behavior invited the problems she encountered,” the court ruled

The case of Verga v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board is quite interesting:

[The plaintiff] had some friction with her co-workers and asked her supervisor to hold a staff meeting to discuss the issues. She believed that the employees were resisting her directives and her objective at the meeting was to have her supervisor explain her authority and be harsh and direct with the others. The meeting, though, didn't go as she had planned. When the issue of respect came up, she grabbed a dictionary to look up the definition. The employees reacted …by airing their feelings that she was rude, inflexible, and a perfectionist. [The woman] later described the meeting as "the worst trial in the history of America." Shortly afterwards, she was diagnosed with anxiety and depression resulting from the trauma of negative interactions with her co-workers and supervisor--and she filed a workers' comp claim for psychiatric injury.