What is a hostile work environment under employment law?

A hostile work environment is a workplace where an employee is subjected to harassment, intimidation, or offensive conduct based on protected characteristics like race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, making it difficult for them to do their job. This conduct must be severe or frequent enough to affect the employee's work performance or create an intimidating, offensive, or abusive atmosphere.

What Makes a Workplace Hostile

A hostile work environment occurs when unwelcome conduct directed at an employee because of a protected characteristic becomes so frequent, severe, or both that it changes the conditions of employment. The conduct does not have to result in job loss or demotion. Instead, courts look at whether a reasonable person would find the workplace intimidating, hostile, or abusive. A single incident is usually not enough to create a hostile environment, but repeated conduct or a single severe incident can qualify.