Hostile Work Environment

Are You Experiencing a Hostile Work Environment?

It is illegal for an employer to allow discriminatory comments or behavior in the workplace that make it a Hostile Work Environment for any employee. The behavior that can make a work environment “hostile” might include, might include offensive comments, bullying, racist jokes, unwanted sexual advances, consistently unfair treatment, crude gestures, and the like. When these kinds of behavior are present in the workplace, it can seriously affect your work performance or your potential for career advancement, and it might even make you feel like you want to leave your job. But none of this is okay.

The Law Protects You

When a work environment becomes so hostile that it interferes with an employee’s ability to work in the workplace, the employee may be able to sustain a claim under either Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), if not both.
Additionally, thanks to recent changes in the law, New York State has enacted sweeping new workplace harassment protections eliminating the prior requirement that harassment be “severe or pervasive” in order to be legally actionable. Currently, an employee who is treated less well than her peers on the job can legally sustain a Hostile Work Environment Claim. Morever, the coverage of the NYCHRL now applies to all employers in the State and extends protection against all forms of discrimination and harassment in the workplace to all non-employee workers in the State.

Making a Hostile Work Environment Claim

To sustain a viable Hostile Work Environment claim, you have to be able to prove you were subjected to such an offensive and abusive conduct that it ultimately affected your ability to do your job under those working conditions. But this comes with one caveat: legally, the offensive conduct must be discriminatory in nature to be actionable. This means that your case will only be successful in the courts if your employer discriminated against you because of a protected characteristic you possess, such as your age, race, or gender. This unfortunately means that even if your boss curses at you day-in and day-out, or engages in another kind of socially unacceptable conduct, the court would likely not rule in your favor without there being a discrimination component.

Yet even then, Hostile Work Environment claims must survive a totality of the circumstances analysis. In assessing these claims, courts will not only look to see if the conduct was discriminatory in nature, they will also look at:

how frequently the conduct occurred;
how severe it was;
whether the conduct included physical threats or public humiliation, or rather just consisted of offensive remarks;
whether the conduct unreasonably interfered with the employee’s ability to do her job;
and any other pertinent surrounding circumstances.

Proving a Hostile Work Environment claim is difficult because it requires an all-around strong case. To make sure your case is as strong as it could be, you should always be sure to keep documentation of all inappropriate conduct you are subjected to in the workplace, and you should bring all this evidence to a consultation with an experienced Discrimination attorney. You will need an attorney who knows how to fight for your rights, even in the face of tough employers – and you can find attorneys like that at Shalom Law, PLLC.

You Do Not Have to Suffer in Silence – Shalom Law is Here to Help

The legal team here at Shalom Law, PLLC have had years of experience advocating for the rights of employees like you in Hostile Work Environment, Discrimination, and all sorts of other kinds of Employment Law claims in New York and around the nation. If you’re experiencing a Hostile Work Environment, we understand the scary position you’re in, and we are here to help. Contact us now at (718) 971-9474 to tell us about your case and learn more about your options.