Hostile Work Environment

What is a Hostile Work Environment?

The term "hostile work environment" is used to describe serious workplace misconduct. Workplace harassment should not be confused with your boss or coworkers simply being rude, annoying, or disrespectful. It does not refer to normal teasing or joking around between employees, nor does this label apply to incidents that are isolated in nature. To truly qualify as a hostile work environment, there must be a repeated pattern of inappropriate behavior that is interfering with an employee's ability to successfully perform his or her daily job duties.

Some examples of behavior that can contribute to hostility in the workplace include:

• Inappropriate touching that makes another person feel uncomfortable, such as patting or pinching
• Leering at an employee in a sexually suggestive manner
• Making offensive remarks about someone's physical appearance
• Sending, soliciting, or forwarding e-mails with explicit sexual images and/or racial stereotypes
• Use of racially derogatory language
• Intimidating remarks relating to a person's physical or mental disability
• Threats of physical violence

A boss, manager, or supervisor who is purposely trying to create an unpleasant work environment to force an employee to quit his or her position is also guilty of workplace harassment.

Tips for Coping

Dealing with workplace harassment can be very stressful. Here are a few tips that may help you cope:

• Document everything related to the problem. Save copies of inappropriate emails and keep a journal detailing all inappropriate behavior. If you have a friend at work who has witnessed the misconduct, ask him or her to contribute a statement to your file as well.
• Review your company's employee manual to find out the policy for reporting harassment, and follow the steps outlined in the policy.
• If you're feeling physically threatened, contact local law enforcement immediately. Although serious workplace violence is rare, you don't want to take unnecessary chances when it comes to your safety.
• If it's a coworker who is causing your problems and there is no immediate physical danger, schedule a meeting to discuss the issue with your immediate supervisor. In many cases, your supervisor may not even be aware the problem exists. Depending upon the size and structure of your company, the human resources manager may also be able to provide assistance in resolving the issue.

Although many people are adamantly opposed to quitting their job because of a colleague's misconduct, you may want to ask yourself if the added stress is worth sticking around in a place that is making you unhappy. If you're starting to have headaches, stomachaches, or other physical symptoms related to your anxiety, try using some of your vacation days to go look for a new job. You don't need to go into details about the problem when interviewing for a new position; it's fine to say you are just looking for a new challenge or searching for a company with extra opportunity for growth.

Taking Legal Action

A serious pattern of discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, to have a solid case for taking legal action, the person filing the suit must be a member of a protected class based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and/or sexual orientation. The inappropriate conduct must be based on the person's membership in the protected class and be serious enough to have affected a term of employment or unreasonably interfered with his or her work performance by creating an intimidating and offensive workplace.

If you decide that taking legal action is the best way to resolve your workplace difficulty, keep in mind that there is a 45 day time limit for filing a formal compliant.

Additional Information

To learn more about protecting yourself from a hostile employment situation, LoveToKnow Jobs suggests visiting the following helpful links:

• Understanding Workplace Harassment
• Employee Issues
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964