The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that harassment is a form of employment discrimination that violates…
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
Harassment is any unwelcome action related to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, or age. These are all characteristics that we hear when discussing illegal discrimination.
Unlawful harassment occurs when work conduct is pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or abusive environment. In some cases, an employer will threaten that an employee will lose their job if they don’t put up with hostile behaviors or conditions.
However, some situations aren’t considered illegal hostile work environments. For example, isolated incidents fall into the category that isn’t illegal, unless it’s a serious enough situation. To be unlawful, the conduct must create an environment that’s intimidating, hostile, or offensive to reasonable people.
So what all can contribute to these uncomfortable situations in the office? Here are 9 obvious hostile work environment signs.
Table of Contents
Verbal Anger or Aggession
Most people leave their job because they don’t feel appreciated. In fact, 79% of employees who quit said that a major reason was due to a lack of appreciation.
Some of these feelings may stem from working with managers or peers who show verbal aggression. If an employee is constantly getting yelled at or receives a negative attitude from other staff, they obviously won’t feel like the company cares for them.
This verbal aggression is a clear sign that the work environment is hostile. Shouting in the workplace would just cause tension and put everyone on edge. No one wants to have to worry that they’ll be at the other end of that angry yelling.
And verbal aggression isn’t just yelling at others. It also includes mean, spiteful, and abusive comments. Unfortunately, bullying isn’t just a concept from your adolescent past. In some cases, it still occurs in adulthood, even when you’re at work.
Non-Verbal Anger or Aggression
Have you ever sensed someone’s anger without them even having to tell you? Aggression doesn’t only come through words or something physically obvious like a punch to the face.
Work peers or managers may also show non-verbal anger through subtle actions like slamming their office door or forcefully throwing papers on your desk. Or maybe they roll their eyes when you share ideas, ignore you in group meetings, or leave you off an important email conversation.
The person showing aggression doesn’t need to say anything about being angry. It’s visibly obvious through their actions or body language, which are enough to make anyone feel intimidated.
Verbal or Nonverbal Sexual Harassment
According to the EEOC, sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and any harassment of a sexual nature. This kind of harassment can also include offensive, non-sexual remarks about a person’s sex.
The EEOC says that the victim or harasser can be a man or woman, and they can be of the same or different sex.
Just like anger and aggression, instances of sexual harassment can be verbal or nonverbal. Some instances of verbal sexual harassment include…
Comments about appearance such as physique, makeup, or clothing
A coworker persistently asks you on dates even after you say you aren’t interested
Name-calling, either privately or in front of coworkers
Nonverbal sexual harassment can include inappropriate touching, especially after you’ve told the offender to stop or that the behavior makes you uncomfortable. It can also include leaving items on your desk, like an inappropriate note or picture. This is one of the many hostile work environment signs because of how uncomfortable the inappropriate behavior makes the victim.
Discrimination
Merriam-Webster defines discrimination as “the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people.” It also makes a distinction of racial/sexual/religious discrimination, which relates to discrimination based on race, sex, or religion.
via Merriam-Webster
Verbal or nonverbal discriminatory acts could relate to…
Gender
Race
Skin pigmentation
Religion
Sexual orientation
Physical or cognitive disabilities
Other characteristics defined by state law
Instances of discrimination could occur in many ways, such as a coworker making comments to someone’s face or behind their back. There may also be more obvious signs of this unfair treatment. This could include an employee receiving lower pay than someone with the same job duties, just because they’re part of a minority group.
Because of how offensive and abusive these situations can be, they create an illegal hostile work environment. This unlawful behavior is unacceptable in the workplace and should always get reported to authorities.
Belittling or Shaming Publicly
Employees who shame or belittle their coworkers in front of others create a toxic workplace. Some people might consider this behavior to be verbal harassment. Although this may be true, it deserves its own category because it’s also emotional abuse.
There are several components to the definition of belittling…
via InSentence
These actions are also belligerent or demeaning. Because belittling and shaming cause emotional abuse for the person involved, it creates more hostility among team members.
Theatened with Punishments
If a manager threatens to punish you when you’ve done nothing wrong, you’re most likely going to feel like the company isn’t being fair. Unwarranted threats may include pay cuts, reduced hours, withholding a bonus, or even termination.
Since these threats lead to employees feeling intimidated or manipulated at work, these are also hostile work environment signs.
Offensive Jokes or Racial Slurs
Offensive jokes or racial slurs can fall under verbal sexual harassment or discrimination. No instance makes it okay to use these jokes. Even if you’re good friends with the person and you think that they know it’s a joke, it still isn’t appropriate. They may take offense to it but just not want to voice their discomfort if you’re friends.
These jokes can include topics about…
Weight
Eating disorders
Physical appearance
Sex
Religion
Sexual orientation
Mental health disorders
Disabilities
It doesn’t matter if you make these comments with lighthearted intentions. Topics like these are likely to offend someone and cause discomfort for everyone involved.
Unhealthy Competition
A little competition can be healthy sometimes, such as through the Office Olympics. Friendly, competitive games are a great way to add some fun workplace culture to your company.
What you don’t want is unhealthy or extreme competition among coworkers. Employees shouldn’t feel like they have to compete against each other at their job such as by fighting for attention from their superiors to have their ideas heard.
People shouldn’t feel anxious about getting their ideas heard over someone else’s. Otherwise, it could lead to low self-esteem for staff who feel like they always get ignored.
Instead, the workplace should encourage all ideas, goals, and efforts from staff so that they don’t need to compete against each other.
Misery Everywhere
When the above problems occur in the workplace, it ends up making people feel miserable. No one wants to work for a company where they experience aggression, harassment, discrimination, threats, or emotional abuse.
If people are miserable, they’ll likely just make the environment more negative. They may also end up leaving the company because they don’t feel engaged. As much as 51% of people aren’t engaged at work and feel no connection to their job. Another 17.5% are “actively disengaged” and resent their job, complain to coworkers, and harm office morale. That means that over 68% are unhappy at work.
Having that many people who are miserable is another hostile work environment sign. This is why it’s even more important to address the issues that I already mentioned so that people don’t become disengaged and unhappy with their jobs.
However, some people feel miserable or depressed even if the environment isn’t hostile. Burnout is a common problem, and managers also can’t control how team members feel based on situations outside of work.
But as a manager, you can have conversations with staff if you notice they feel this way. After all, you don’t want them to start making the workplace unpleasant for others because of personal problems. This could just drive away your successful staff.
If you notice that employees bring negativity to work, talk to them about why they feel this way. Maybe they need a connection to mental health help, or there’s a resource they need to improve their work experience.
Even just going out of your way as a manager to show support to these people can improve their mood. They’ll know that you care about them and want them to grow with the company. Just by showing support as a manager, employees are 70% less likely to experience regular burnout. So by decreasing their negative feelings, the work environment will be more pleasant for them and everyone around them.
Conclusion
If you find that these situations are occurring at work, there are different steps you can take as a manager or employee.
It’s important to make note of the situations that are occurring, especially if they fall into the category of illegal harassment. These instances should always get reported to either management or law enforcement. Otherwise, they’ll keep occurring.
Even if the action isn’t unlawful, it’s still important to report hostile behavior to managers or someone with authority who can address it. That way, those with the power to make a change in staffing and work culture are aware of the problem and can take action.
If all else fails for staff, they may walk away from a job due to the hostile work environment. Hopefully, that’s not the case for most people or their companies. But the longer these negative situations occur and if there’s a lack of response from HR or management, the more likely someone will leave.
Because of this, managers need to take concerns seriously. You’ll struggle to find and retain talent if these problems occur amongst your team and you don’t do anything about it.
