What Is Considered a Hostile Work Environment?
Most Americans spend 40 or more hours per week at work, a significant portion of their lives. The workplace environment has a substantial impact on a person’s mood and emotional well-being, even outside of work. If the work environment is hostile, it not only becomes difficult for an employee to do their job, but it may impact all aspects of their daily life.
Fortunately, California’s employment law gives all workers the statutory right to an equal opportunity to succeed at work. If a hostile work environment interferes with that right, the employee has a right to file a lawsuit.
What Is a Hostile Work Environment?
California employees have a right to work in an environment that’s free from harassment. Under California GOV § 12923, the statute describes the purpose of the law as the following:
“The Legislature hereby declares that harassment creates a hostile, offensive, oppressive, or intimidating work environment and deprives victims of their statutory right to work in a place free of discrimination when the harassing conduct sufficiently offends, humiliates, distresses, or intrudes upon its victim…”
Harassment in the workplace is unwelcome conduct against an employee due to their protected characteristics such as race, sex, gender, medical condition, age, or whistleblower status. Harassment becomes a hostile work environment that’s actionable under the following circumstances:
- If the employee must continue to endure the harassment as a condition of their continued employment
- If the harassment is serious and problematic enough that any reasonable worker would find the conditions “intimidating, hostile, or abusive.”
Brief, unwelcome incidents or unpleasant behavior do not constitute a hostile work environment. Under the law, the offensive conditions must continue long enough to be a regular feature of the workday environment to qualify for legal action. If the daily work environment in a position is offensive to any reasonable person, it rises to the level of illegality in California. If you have experienced harassment in the workplace, it is important to seek legal representation from an Orange County workplace harassment attorney.
Examples of a Hostile Work Environment
Unlike many legal claims, the victim of a hostile work environment does not have to show economic damages from the harassment. The offensive behavior doesn’t necessarily have to be aimed at the claimant if the condition causes a hostile environment that impacts their ability to enjoy a peaceful, productive work environment. The abusive conduct may come from a supervisor, co-worker, or non-employee regularly present in the workplace. Examples of behaviors that create hostile work environment include:
- Yelling
- Offensive language
- Name-calling/belittling
- Slurs
- Ridicule/mockery
- Offensive jokes
- Unwanted touching
- Publically displaying offensive photos or objects
- Intimidation
- Threats
- Verbal assaults
- Physical assaults
When unwelcome conduct, harassment, or offensive behavior continues for a significant period of time, and isn’t remedied by corrective measures after you’ve filed an HR complaint, you have a right to seek a legal remedy if the conditions in your workplace make it difficult to do your job.
What Should I Do If My Workplace Environment Is Hostile?
Employees should first report the hostile condition to management and their company’s HR department, allowing the opportunity for corrective measures. If the harassment continues despite the company’s attempts to address the conditions, the employer has liability in a lawsuit filed by the victim of a hostile workplace. An Orange County employment law lawyer guides victims of hostile workplace environments through the legal process of a lawsuit against an employer who failed to correct workplace harassment.