Question
What is a hostile work environment?
Answer
Harassment becomes unlawful where:
To recap, discrimination and harassment create a hostile work environment and harassment becomes unlawful where enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment or that conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that any reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. Some examples of what a hostile work environment might look like include:
- Degrading comments
- Sexual propositions
- Vulgar language
- Sexual touching
- Embarrassing questions
- Sexual or racial jokes
- Bullying
The term reasonable person is referring to the reasonable person standard where the perception of the alleged victim takes precedence over the intention of the accused. In other words, it's the victim's point of view that determines harassment on whether the behavior is welcomed. The determination of harassment is based on whether the invitation to engage in the activity was unwelcome, not on whether the victim voluntarily participated. It's important to think about how a third party might perceive your actions or behavior, because some comments may simply be inappropriate. It's not about the intent, it's about the impact. Think about the potential effects of your actions on others.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Fundamentals of Human Resources: Non-Managerial Early Childhood Staff, by Katie Ryan Fotiadis, MS.
