What Are the Elements of a Hostile Work Environment?
- Elements of Hostile Work EnvironmentOffice image by 6922Designer from Fotolia.com
When determining whether a worker's behavior is creating a hostile work environment, it must be established that the behavior is persistent and affected another worker's performance or term of employment through intimidation, hostility, or offensive conduct. Common elements of a hostile work environment can include offensive verbal and physical behavior based on sexual harassment, race, age, or disability. - The most common form of a hostile work environment is caused by forms of sexual harassment, such as unwanted touching, sexual remarks about a worker's physical appearance, body, or clothes. Sexual harassment can be directed toward either gender, male or female, and can also include nonverbal types of offensive material, such as sexually explicit letters, emails, photos and videos. Another more specific example of harassment can be the offer of a promotion in return for sexual favors.
- Discrimination against a worker based on her race, national origin, ethnicity, or religion can also result in a hostile work environment. The discrimination can be verbal in nature as in the use of racial or religious epithets or statements that perpetuate racial or religious stereotypes. This prejudice also can be in the form of gestures, demonstrations and pictures that depict a particular race in a negative way.
- Age discrimination is most prevalent in cases where an employee's opportunities for promotion and development are limited because of his age. It is often directed toward employees who are determined to be senior citizens, but also might be established as discriminatory in cases where the complainant is 40 or older. In addition, this element of a hostile work environment can develop as a result of persistent negative statements that are based on the employee's age.
- According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Americans with Disabilities Act, discrimination against an employee because of a mental or physical disability is prohibited by law. The Department of Justice defines a disabled person as having a "mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one more or major life activities." A hostile environment can be created under many circumstances, including instances where the disabled individual is denied a promotion, training, pay, or acceptance to social activities at the workplace because of being physically or mentally impaired.
