4 Signs Your Business's Work Environment Might Be Hostile

By JC Serrano

Your employees don't have to be best friends, but they do need a pleasant work dynamic in order to work together effectively. This is why it's important that teams and departments maintain good working relationships. However, isolated cases of workplace bullying and abusive supervision can turn into a bigger problem.

In U.S. labor law, a hostile work environment is defined as a toxic atmosphere that renders reasonable employees unable to do their jobs, in some cases giving them no other choice but to leave. When constant poor treatment creates a hostile work environment, companies don't just risk a destructive work dynamic, but risk running into trouble with the law.

Whether you have two or 200 employees, it is paramount to ensure employees have a great working relationship with the company and each other. Read on to learn more about the signs of a hostile work environment.

How is "hostile work environment" defined in employment law?

According to most U.S. jurisdictions, hostile work environments are driven by discrimination. Labor law defines discrimination as regularly targeting an employee with adverse employment actions based on an employee's protected characteristics and activities.

Protected characteristics include age, race, sex, gender, etc. Protected activities include whistleblowing, voting, filing a family leave, and taking time off to serve on a jury. Adverse employment actions that might contribute to hostile working environments include harassment, unjustified pay cuts, and other forms of retaliation.

This makes discrimination, especially in employment settings, illegal. In some cases, employers are held liable if they encourage or ignore harassment. If an employee has been left with no choice but to quit, then it might be considered a constructive dismissal.

Are there exceptions to legal claims of hostile work environments?

In the case of Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 US 75 (1998), where a male oil-rig worker alleged he was sexually harassed by his coworkers at work, it was ruled that offhand comments and isolated cases aren't enough to cause a situation to be considered a hostile work environment. The harassment and poor treatment have to be severe enough to affect someone's employment or ability to do their job.

Regardless of the legal aspects, a toxic work atmosphere is not good. Just because an action may not be punishable by law doesn't mean the effects aren't as worrisome.

If harassment is tolerated or ignored, perpetrators might think what they're doing is okay, and things could worsen. After all, a hostile work environment doesn't just start in a single workday—it starts with small, tolerated actions until it escalates.

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Early signs of hostile work environments

Arguments, offhand remarks, and one-time incidents can't be used as grounds for an actual legal discrimination claim. And yes, no matter how bad an isolated incident might be, sometimes it still isn't enough. However, tensions created by an incident can still impact employees and the company. Things might even get worse if unaddressed.

Here are a few red flags you should watch for:

1. Workplace bullying

Workplace bullies usually inflict harm while still adhering to company rules and policies. In other words, a manager can be harsh and demeaning to a staff member as long as he/she is not violating company rules. Likewise, a bully can be downright rude to another coworker without doing enough to get reported to HR.

As long as both parties can still do their jobs, employers and HR departments have no reason to hand out penalties or punishment. That said, bullying can cause physical and emotional harm. For example, calling someone names, humiliating them, dropping snide comments, harassing them on social media, and deliberately bumping into them in the hallways are all signs of bullying.

2. Abusive supervisors

Supervisors and managers don't have to be nice. In fact, some people prefer strict supervisors because they get the job done. However, it's one thing to be mean, intimidating, and tough, and another to take advantage of an unfair power dynamic.

Many workplace bullies are reported to be working in higher positions than their targets. Some abusive supervisors will deliberately hand out more work, reassign an employee to a highly inconvenient store location, or encourage harassment and bullying. Unfortunately, some of these actions might be considered isolated incidents, so they don't get reported as often as they should.

When someone higher-up initiates, tolerates, and encourages harassment, this is one of the fastest ways workplace bullying escalates to hostile work environments. If a supervisor is the one initiating and tolerating harassment, everyone else will think the harassment is acceptable.

3. Isolation

Again, employees and team members don't have to be friends. However, if a specific team member is constantly left out, ignored, or humiliated in team meetings and projects, this is a bad sign. And even if the employee isn't getting bullied, isolation still will affect the team dynamic.

4. Discrimination

Unlike all the other red flags on this list, any harassment or bullying rooted in discrimination is legal grounds to file claims. However, employees can't just claim something is discriminatory. If they claim they've been subjected to a hostile work environment, they need to prove that the toxicity happened, it happened often, it affected their work, and that it is rooted in discrimination.

This also means that snide comments and isolated incidents, even when seemingly discriminatory, aren't enough grounds to file claims. However, if an employee is on the receiving end of sexist comments, racial slurs, homophobia, or any other adverse discriminatory actions, then it's a glaring red flag. Any tolerance or encouragement of such behavior can ruin workplace dynamics, emotionally harm targets of discrimination, and get employers in trouble with the law.

Dealing with a hostile work environment

Unfortunately, most jurisdictions require a certain amount of toxicity, physical and emotional harm, and visible effects on someone's ability to work to be legally considered a hostile work environment. In addition, there has to be an element of discrimination, which differentiates regular office tensions from illegal actions.

Some signs of bullying, isolation, and harsh supervision do not automatically warrant employer or HR intervention. Worse, since workplace bullies try not to break company rules, it is often not enough to hand down justifiable punishments to perpetrators. In addition, some of these issues are personal and can only be resolved outside of work.

However, you can take measures to prevent or reduce tensions between employees. You can do what a lot of employers are doing, which is setting aside company time for team-building exercises or holding special events. This is a quick way to welcome new employees, foster working relationships, and reduce tension and stress. Other quick solutions include changing offices, cubicles, teams, and work assignments to temporarily keep two tense parties away from each other.

More importantly, if the hostility is motivated by discrimination, it's time to make a move. You don't have to intervene in personal quarrels. However, you need to take action as soon as someone's legal right is getting trampled on.

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