How to identify and address a hostile work environment

Occasional tension at work is normal. But if an employee flinches every time a certain manager or colleague walks in, it’s a sign that something isn’t right. 

A hostile work environment can spiral fast, harming employee engagement, driving turnover, and opening the door to legal issues. In this guide, we offer examples and break down how to recognize the early warning signs. We’ll also discuss the steps you can take to stop toxic workplace harassment. 

What’s considered a hostile work environment?

A hostile work environment occurs when an employee is subjected to unwelcome conduct that’s severe or pervasive enough to interfere with their ability to work. While the term is sometimes used to describe any workplace dysfunction that damages the company culture, it’s most often mentioned in the context of discrimination law. 

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), a hostile work environment is considered a form of unlawful harassment. It applies when offensive, intimidating, or abusive conduct is based on protected characteristics like race, gender, disability, or age.

This kind of environment doesn’t just harm employees’ well-being and disrupt team cohesion. Left unchecked, it also puts your organization at legal risk. Besides the federal protections we just mentioned, most states have their own discrimination laws and guidelines enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 

To meet the legal definition of a hostile work environment, the behavior must be:

• Linked to protected characteristics: The harassment, intimidation, or offensive behavior must be based on protected characteristics, such as race, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, or national origin. 
• Pervasive, severe, and persistent: The offending conduct must be either ongoing or extreme enough to alter the employee’s working conditions. 
• Objectively disruptive: A reasonable person (not just the individual on the receiving end) would find the environment hostile, intimidating, or abusive.
• Unwelcome: The behavior must be unsolicited and unwanted by the employee experiencing it.

Working in a hostile environment: 7 signs to watch for 

Worried about harassment, discrimination, or intimidation in your workplace? Watch for these seven signs. 

1. A steady stream of complaints 

If your inbox is filling up with repeated complaints about harassment and discriminatory behavior, there’s clearly a problem. You should never ignore reports tied to protected characteristics like race, gender, or religion, but repeated concerns could signal an even more pervasive issue. 

2. A culture that thrives on fear 

When managers and supervisors use intimidation, threats, or public humiliation to manage their teams, people don’t feel safe. Employees will also be too afraid to speak up, perpetuating this culture of fear. An example would be a manager bullying an employee into being available after hours, destroying their work-life balance.

3. A lack of constructive feedback

The aim of criticism should always be to help your team grow, never to punish or demoralize them. Supervisors who focus on personal attacks, sarcasm, and offensive remarks instead of guidance are verbally abusing their reports. This type of unwelcome behavior creates anxiety and fuels hostility. 

4. Team members are being excluded 

If certain individuals are being left out of one-on-one meetings, group projects, or learning opportunities, ask why. Excluding individuals based on their background or identity is workplace harassment. It also sends a message to the rest of the team that their voices matter less. 

5. Biased policies and favoritism

Policies that favor one protected group over another violate EEOC and Title VII standards. Whether it’s pay disparities or biased performance criteria, biased practices contribute to a hostile work environment. And when leaders show blatant favoritism, like rewarding certain employees while sidelining others, this breeds resentment. Over time, unequal treatment inevitably causes division among coworkers.

6. A revolving door of departures 

High turnover is often a stark warning sign of toxic behavior, pervasive harassment, or burnout from ongoing hostility. Many times, employees who feel unsafe or unsupported will find it easier to leave rather than file a complaint. If you’re not paying attention, you might not even notice how bad things really are.

7. Lack of communication 

Healthy workplaces thrive on open communication. In hostile work environments, it’s common for supervisors to avoid being transparent or for coworkers to gossip without fear of reprisal. Communication breakdowns can allow harassing conduct to persist or go entirely unnoticed. 

Workleap Officevibe makes it easier to catch these issues before they escalate. HR and managers can use pulse surveys and real-time feedback to track workplace sentiment and respond quickly. 

What should employees do if they feel they’re in a hostile work environment?

Every company should have an employee handbook that includes instructions for reporting harassment, bullying, or any discriminatory behavior. To ensure your employees know how to prove a hostile work environment, make sure they are also aware of these strategies: 

• Keep a detailed record: The employee should note the time, date, and location of each offending incident. They should also include who was involved. 
• Record the context of each incident: Additional details like how the incident affected their work performance and whether similar issues have occurred before provide vital context. 
• Collect supporting evidence: Encourage your staff to save any emails, Slack messages, or other relevant documentation. A paper trail provides evidence that backs up their claim. 
• Report concerns promptly: Make sure your employees know how and where to file a complaint. This might be to a manager, the HR department, or through an anonymous system. Time can muddy the waters and make it trickier to gather evidence, so let them know how important it is to act promptly.
• Keep copies at home: Advise employees to keep a record of events at home or in a secure digital folder, but remind them not to send any sensitive or proprietary information off-site.

How should employees report a hostile work environment?

When your employees feel unsafe, their first instinct may be to stay quiet or even leave. That’s why managers need to normalize speaking up. Give your employees clear, compassionate instructions for reporting workplace harassment and retaliation. Here’s what to recommend: 

• Attempt direct resolution, but only if safe: Only encourage a worker to communicate with the offending party directly if they feel safe to do so. If there is any fear of retaliation or further harm, make sure they’re aware they can elevate the situation. Let them know they have the option of a manager sitting in on the conversation to mediate if they’d like.
• Report the issue to HR: Let your employee know HR is a neutral, trusted channel for reporting workplace harassment. HR colleagues should document, acknowledge, and investigate every incident, no matter how small. 
• Contact external authorities if necessary: If problems persist or workplace protocols fall short, let the employee know they have the option to contact the EEOC or an employment lawyer. 

Practical solutions for managing hostile work environment claims

Harassment, discrimination, and offensive behavior don’t disappear when your employees clock out. They follow people into their free time, haunting their evenings and weekends and ruining their mental health. That’s why protecting your team is essential.

To manage workplace harassment effectively, emotional safety needs to be part of the plan. Here’s what you can do to help: 

• Encourage stress management and downtime: Give your employees space to breathe, whether that’s through flexible schedules or wellness stipends. Promote movement breaks, meditation, and team walks to get people away from their Slack pings. Consider offering employees some time away from work to reset after raising a hostile work environment concern.
• Offer mental health resources: Make sure you’re not just paying lip service when offering mental health support. Grant your employees access to counseling or coaching that helps them process any stress from a hostile work environment. 
• Create a positive work culture: Fostering a respectful and inclusive environment will help prevent toxic behavior before it starts. And while you can’t always protect against bad actors, you can make sure people know your company has a zero-tolerance approach.

Strengthen workplace safety with Workleap

By recognizing hostile behavior early, promptly documenting incidents, and being transparent, you can protect both your team and your company’s reputation. 

Workleap Officevibe makes it easier by offering real-time tools to monitor the workplace. Managers can easily check on employee well-being with customizable pulse surveys and one-on-one meeting tools, and HR can establish whether diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) programs are up to standard using dedicated surveys. Officevibe’s AI features also offer visibility of early signs of toxic or hostile environments. 

When your employees feel safe, respected, and heard, everyone wins. Demo Workleap today to see how its tools can benefit your workplace.