Employers Resource

HR Advice: Addressing a Hostile Environment at Work

Highlights

  • Legally determining a hostile work environment requires specific criteria to be met, such as harassment being based on a protected characteristic and being severe or pervasive.
  • Employers have a responsibility to address all inappropriate behavior.
  • Employers Resource can provide guidance on investigations, offer training courses, and support your company’s efforts to create a positive work environment. Contact us to learn more.

Unwelcome, offensive behavior at work can cause distress and fear among your employees, hurt productivity, and even damage your company’s reputation. But do you know what legally constitutes a “hostile work environment”?

This article provides HR advice on how to identify a hostile environment at work, explores some common misconceptions, and offers practical guidance to address this issue.

Let’s dive in!

The Offensive Behavior Must Be Directed at an Employee Based on a Protected Characteristic, Such as Race, Gender, Religion, Age, Disability, Sexual Orientation, or National Origin

How to Identify a Hostile Work Environment

A company receives multiple complaints from employees about a manager’s abrasive and rude behavior. This manager yells, curses, and even insults employees for their work, demanding them to work faster. Does this constitute a hostile work environment?

Possibly, but not necessarily.

While many employees may perceive a bad boss, an unpleasant work environment, rude colleagues, or a lack of promotions or benefits as creating a hostile work environment, legally, a hostile work environment is more specific.

What are the Legal Requirements for a Hostile Work Environment?

Legally, a hostile work environment requires a combination of factors:

  • Severe or pervasive conduct. The offensive behavior must be more than just occasional or minor. It must be so frequent or severe that it creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
  • Based on a protected characteristic. The behavior, actions, or communication must be discriminatory. This means it must be based on a protected characteristic under relevant laws, such as:
    • Race
    • Gender
    • Religion
    • Disability
    • Age
    • Pregnancy

In our scenario, the manager’s behavior, while unacceptable, may not necessarily constitute a hostile work environment. While yelling, cursing, and insulting employees is inappropriate and unprofessional, it doesn’t seem to be directed at any specific protected characteristic.

In this case, what we have is what you might call an “equal opportunity harasser.” He’s yelling at everyone, not discriminating against a particular group. While this behavior should be addressed by the individual’s supervisor, inappropriate workplace behavior crosses the line into a “hostile work environment” only if it is based on a protected trait.

On the other hand, a coworker who tells sexually explicit jokes could create a hostile work environment, especially if the jokes are frequent or target specific individuals. Similarly, a boss who verbally berates you about your age, religion, gender, or race can create a hostile work environment, even if the comments seem casual or are intended as jokes.

Further Legal Requirements

These are some of the legal requirements that need to be met to establish a legally actionable hostile work environment:

  • The offensive behavior must be directed at an employee based on a protected characteristic, such as race, gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or national origin.
  • The behavior must be so frequent or severe that it creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. These incidents should be reported to HR or a member of management for needed intervention.
  • The problem becomes significant, continues over time, and is not investigated and addressed effectively enough by the organization to make the behavior stop.
  • The hostile behavior, actions, or communication must be severe. The hostile environment must have a significant impact on the employee, such as interfering with their work performance, creating a hostile or intimidating atmosphere that makes it difficult to do their job, or leading to adverse employment actions (for example, denial of promotions or job opportunities).
  • It is reasonable to assume that the employer knew about the actions or behavior and did not sufficiently intervene. Consequently, the employer can be liable for the creation of a hostile work environment.

What is the Employer’s Liability?

In many cases, a hostile work environment is created by an employer, supervisor, manager, or business owner. In such cases, the employer is presumed liable to a victimized employee for a hostile work environment created by supervisors.

However, employers can potentially avoid liability by demonstrating that they:

  1. Exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct harassing behavior. This includes establishing and implementing a clear anti-harassment policy, providing training to all employees on the policy, and creating a safe and confidential reporting process.
  2. The employee unreasonably failed to use the available reporting procedures.

This affirmative defense is only available when the supervisor’s harassment did not result in any tangible employment actions against the employee, such as termination, demotion, or denial of a promotion. If tangible employment actions were taken, the employer is generally presumed liable.

If employees train employees on anti-harassment policies and have clear complaint procedures, they should have a defense to liability in supervisor harassment cases.

How to Address Hostile Work Environments (And Handle Complaints)

First things first: Even if an inappropriate behavior doesn’t meet the strict legal definition of a hostile work environment, it still needs to be addressed. Companies have a responsibility to provide a safe and respectful workplace for all employees.

Secondly, don’t shrug off complaints! Following the steps below can help you ward off serious potential liability:

1. Take All Complaints Seriously

It may be tempting to dismiss complaints that may seem minor or inoffensive. Don’t do it. You never know if the complainant is telling you the full story, or if other, more serious allegations are waiting to be told.

Also, keep in mind that ignoring a workplace harassment complaint can weaken your defense in potential legal proceedings.

2. Conduct a Thorough Investigation

This should be an impartial process to gather information and determine the facts. When investigating is important to:

  • Ensure confidentiality for all parties involved, to the extent possible.
  • Select an investigator with no personal or professional biases related to the parties involved. This could be an internal HR representative, an external consultant, or an attorney.

At Employers Resource, we can support you in conducting thorough and impartial investigations.

3. Take Action to Stop Inappropriate Behavior

Whether the behavior rises to the level of creating a hostile work environment or not, take action to stop it. Talk to the person acting inappropriately and explain the impact of their actions and the importance of maintaining a respectful workplace.

Follow up with the complainant to ensure their safety and well-being, and to determine if any further action is necessary.

4. Train Supervisors and Employees Annually

Conduct annual training on sexual harassment and other inappropriate workplace behavior to educate your workforce on your harassment policies and complaint-reporting procedures. Use training sessions to reinforce your commitment to keeping your company free of discrimination and retaliation.

Provide specialized training for supervisors and managers on how to recognize, respond to, and prevent harassment within their teams.

Conduct Regular Workplace Harassment Training to Educate Your Workforce on Your Policies and Complaint-Reporting Procedures

Partner With Employers Resource to Create a Positive Work Environment

Legally defining a hostile work environment requires a combination of factors. However, employers must always address inappropriate behavior, no matter how it’s classified.

Employers Resource can assist you in navigating these HR relations issues by providing guidance on investigations, offering training resources, and supporting your efforts to create a positive and inclusive work environment.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you protect your business and your employees.

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