I have been continually directly and indirectly harassed by my manager's boss, who has apparently decided he does not like me. I don't believe it is necessarily due to the EEOC shopping list of race, religion, gender, marital status, etc. He is a caucasion male, I am a caucasion female and he treats other women, and people in general regardless of their disposition, differently. He has created special "policies" and directives just for me and no one else in the organization, that is outside of and conflicts with corporation policy. He has maligned my character and professional ability, falsely, to anyone who would listen. He has gone on "fishing expeditions" personally approaching my co-workers, asking them questions geared to purposefully solicit complaints about me (i.e. How often do you have problems in getting satisfactory turn around time on tasks from Arwen?? --- While corp policy states I have 24hrs for a response, in a sales organization, the culture wants answers yesterday and while the sales org is aware of the corp policy, much of the time if they don't have an answer in 5min, to them, the world is coming to an end, so the expected answer to the type of question posed above would be generally answered as "she always takes too long" -- even though through metrics tracking my average turn around is less than 8 hours.) He has 'uninvited' me to meetings within the organization that I have always attended and which are crucial to my job performance, while my colleagues (who are also in the same chain of command) continue to attend the said meetings. He has created an extremely hostile work environment for me, through slander, 'special Arwen policies' and general deceit and lies. I am not sure how this fits into the EEOC's general discriminatory categories, but I am most definitely and continually being harassed and stuck in an untenable environment created at the whim of this executive. What are my options?

Not all harassment is illegal, unfortunately, just harassment that is due to someone's age, disability status, national origin, pregnancy status, race, religion, gender or sexual harassment or due to any other status protected by law.

You say he is treating you differently but you don't believe it is due to discrimination. Are you sure? Why do you think he has a dislike for you? While sometimes people can dislike a person for reasons other than discrimination, it does sound strange.

What can you do? You can talk privately with your manager, if you trust him/her to get his/her opinion. Sometimes it is helpful to get another perspective on the situation. If you don't feel comfortable with your manager, can you talk with an HR representative in your company (if you have an HR Department). They can provide you with consultation about the matter AND they can watch to ensure you are not being treated unfairly in the future.

Of course, when you mention deceit and lies, there is a possibility that you could file a defamation suit against him. However, that would be costly and it would be difficult on you.

If all else fails, you can file a complaint with the EEOC. They may determine that it is not discrimination. However, at least the matter will be investigated.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.