What Makes A Workplace Hostile?
There are numerous circumstances that will make a workplace hostile including some that are totally illegal, unethical and immoral. In most of these circumstances there are remedies that can be looked into against the person or persons that made your workplace hostile.
Before we get into all of the different situations that will cause a hostile workplace let’s first give a definition of what a hostile workplace is and the different categories that these hostilities can and do fall into.
Definition of a Hostile Workplace:
What makes a workplace hostile at the federal level can occur in the following major areas:
* Sexual harassment
* Race discrimination
* Disability discrimination
Along with those primary methods of making a workplace hostile, there are also an assortment of job harassment’s, annoyances and isolated incidents may not exactly contribute to making a workplace hostile but can be very annoying and disruptive to say the least. However, to be unlawful in that extreme, the conduct being complained about must create a work environment that is intimidating, hostile or offensive to reasonable people.
Offensive conduct on the part of a supervisor, employer’s agent, co-worker or nonemployee may include one or more of the following:
* Offensive jokes or slurs
* Name calling
* Physical assaults or threats
* Intimidation
* Ridicule or mockery
* Insults or put-downs
* Offensive objects or pictures
* Interference with work performance
A workplace that is hostile can be an extremely difficult place to spend your day because the hostilities are such a disruption to your job, and may be illegal if the hostility is based on the employee’s membership in one or more of the three specific categories described above that are protected by law.
The most familiar kind of hostile workplace is one that is sexually hostile. We’ve all heard of sexual harassment on the job but even small innuendos that are not noticed by most can become a real problem by making your workplace hostile and a hard place to go to every day.
Speaking specifically of sexual harassment. In order to pursue legal action, the workplace must be subjecting the employee to unwelcome sexual advances, conduct or comments based on sex, and it must be so severe and pervasive as to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment.
A Workplace Can Be Hostile To Others Too.
Older workers, disabled workers, hostilities based on race, ethnicity, country of origin, skin color, medical conditions, sexual orientation, marital status, and so on can all become victims of a hostile workplace when one or more bullies make the workplace hostile and an unfriendly, stress filled place to go to every day.
