Hostile Environment
Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment
A hostile work environment occurs when a person is subjected to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature to such an extent that it alters the conditions of the person's employment or creates an abusive working environment. In a hostile work environment, the harasser may be a woman or a man. He or she can be the victim's co-worker or supervisor.
Most laws also require employers to protect their employees from harassment by vendors, independent contractors, customers and others. Where an employer becomes aware of a hostile work environment and fails to take remedial action, that employer may be held liable whether or not the harasser is an employee.
Harassment that constitutes a hostile environment is any conduct based on sex that becomes sufficiently severe that it creates fear, intimidates, ostracizes, psychologically or physically threatens, embarrasses, ridicules, or in some other way unreasonably over burdens or precludes an employee from reasonably performing his/her work duties. Conduct that may constitute sexual harassment includes the following unwelcome acts:
- Sexually Explicit E-mails
- Sexually explicit flyers
- Sexual innuendos
- Sexual propositions
- Sexual threats
- Sexual insults
- Obscene jokes
- Lewd remarks
- Demeaning names
- Unwelcome touching
- Sexual sounds
- Viewing websites and videos
- Cat calls
- Work sabotage to intimidate
- Physical contact of a sexual nature
- Requests for sexual favors, sexual inquiries or demands
- Offensive and inappropriate language
- Other conduct of a sexually degrading nature
- Explicit pictures displayed in plain view or emailed
In evaluating hostile work environment sexual harassment, courts often look at the frequency, severity, nature of the harassment as well as the power relationship between the harasser and the victim to judge whether the conduct is sufficiently severe to alter the victim's work environment. Only the hostile environment harassment that meets this threshold can support a sexual harassment lawsuit. As a result, isolated incidents of a trivial nature typically are insufficient to support a lawsuit.