No Workers' Compensation Benefits for Mean Employee

So Verga is a United Airlines employee. She is tough on her co-workers. They resent it and are mean to her. Verga files a workers' compensation claim for "stress" caused by the co-workers' "disdain." The Court of Appeal, agreeing with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, held: "No benefits for you!"

Here is the gist of it:

The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (the WCAB) concluded that Rosemary
Verga was not entitled to compensation for psychiatric injury while employed by United Airlines. According to Verga, her psychiatric injury was the result of harassment and persecution by her supervisor and co-workers. However, the WCAB found “the true fact remains that [Verga] was not actually subject to harassment or persecution, she instead brought upon herself the disdain of her co-workers” because Verga was “a difficult person to get along with”; she was impolite, unpleasant, and co-workers “never knew when [she] might get upset.” The WCAB held: “That disdain is not an actual event of employment” within the meaning of the statute. [par.] We issued a writ of review and shall now affirm the WCAB order.

The case is Verga v. WCAB and the opinion is here.