What is a Hostile Work Environment and What is Not?
A hostile work environment does not just mean that your coworkers are mean to you or talk about you behind your back. While these actions may make your job difficult, they do not amount to the definition of a hostile work environment. An important element of a hostile work environment is that the discriminating behavior, sexual harassment, or threats are based on race, sex, beliefs, national origin, disability, age, or another protected class. The behavior must be sufficiently “severe or pervasive” to affect the employee’s work performance or ability. Whether an employer is responsible for co-worker harassment will depend on whether it knew about the harassment and failed to do something about it. An employer is liable for a supervisor’s harassment whether or not it was aware of it. A hostile workplace may involve the following actions that are described in Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964: • Sexual harassment • Unwanted sexual advances or racial comments • Unwanted ex
