Workplace Harassment

• One part of a hostile work environment is experiencing workplace harassment. This means coworkers, your boss, or even independent contractors or consultants at your company are conveying to you in some way negative thoughts, feelings or comments. This includes things regarding your sex, gender, race, religion, nationality, age or disabilities. Sexual harassment also falls under the umbrella of a hostile work environment.
  
  

Fear of Going to Work

• In a hostile work environment, you may also feel afraid to go to work because you cannot handle the remarks, or you have been threatened with physical violence. Or perhaps your job performance suffers as a result of the activity. If you have ever been afraid to go to your workplace, it is likely a hostile work environment.
  
  

Inappropriate Behavior from a Superior

• A hostile work environment can also be created by a boss, manager or other superior if they behave in a manner that implies that they'd like you to quit based on past actions which are not objectionable--for example, if you were injured at work or you complained to upper management about a situation at work. Rather than deal with the issue, they would rather you quit so the issue will go away. Also if you quit, they would not be required to pay you unemployment.
  
  

Your Rights

• Any of the above behaviors from coworkers or bosses is illegal, and action should be taken. There are anti-discrimination laws in place that are specific to the workplace that can protect you and your rights. However, the situation must be serious, because the laws don't protect against basic rudeness, teasing, joking, or one-time incidents. It also does not include negative criticism based on things that you have actually done wrong. A hostile work environment involves serious undeserved harassment for a significant amount of time.
  
  

What to Do

• If you feel that you are working in a hostile environment, first and foremost you should not attempt to retaliate. If there is retaliation, you may not have any ground to stand on if you go to a superior. You should first look into your company's human resources' (HR) policies and see if they have guidelines in place for what to do in a hostile situation. If there is a legal battle later on, you will have a much better case if you have gone through all the appropriate channels first.
  
  You should seek help from the proper authorities, depending on who is creating the hostility. For example, if it is a coworker, then you should report the activity to your boss. If it is your boss, you should go to upper management or your company's HR department. If you have been threatened with physical violence, it may be in your best interest to go straight to the police, especially if you have already told a superior about the behavior and it has not stopped. If you have reported an incident to someone at your company more than once and nothing has been done to stop it, you may have grounds to sue the company.