You Lost Your Temper And Yelled At An Employee. Does That Create A Hostile Work Environment?

If you lose your temper and yell at an employee, does that automatically create a hostile work environment? A hostile work environment can destroy employee morale and open your business to lawsuits. This is what you should understand about what does and what doesn't cause a hostile work environment.

How Do You End Up With A Hostile Work Environment?

It takes harassment to create a hostile work environment, but it's seldom a single offensive incident. Instead, it's the totality of the situation, including the type of offensive conduct and how often the conduct occurs, that has to be considered. The ultimate question is whether or not:

• tolerating the harassment is required in order to remain employed, or
• the conduct is so constant that a reasonable person would consider it "intimidating, hostile, or abusive."

What Type Of Offensive Conduct Equals Harassment?

There are numerous ways that someone's conduct could be seen as offensive by a reasonable person, but some specific types of prohibited behavior include:

• name calling and racial slurs
• sexually-oriented jokes
• physical threats, touching, or assault
• ridicule and mockery
• offensive objects being placed around (for example, tampons on a woman's desk)
• obscene or sexually oriented photos, calendars, and art

In general, anything that attacks a person based on their age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, appearance, or disabilities can be part of the offensive conduct. When examining the situation, the court looks at:

1.) The severity of the harassment.

For example, if you lose your temper and call an employee a "jerk," you may be guilty of being unprofessional. However, if you refer to someone by a racial slur, you may end up creating a situation where you've now made your employee feel negatively judged based on his or her race from that point forward.

2.) The frequency of the behavior.

For example, if you ask an employee to pray with you, and the employee tells you that he or she finds that offensive because he or she is an atheist, that one incident isn't likely to be seen as harassment. However, if you begin leaving religious literature on your employee's desk or making constant comments about the state of his or her immortal soul, you could be guilty of creating a hostile work environment.

3.) How much it interferes with the employee's work.

Sometimes people say things at work that are unprofessional - such as curse words or insults. However, there are some workplaces and professions where swearing is so commonplace that it's seen as simply office banter (at worst) or even part of the company culture. But if the swearing or insults are one-sided or specifically target one or two individuals, the environment can become very hostile, very fast.

It's also important to remember that some people are more emotionally sensitive than others. So if an employee indicates that he or she is uncomfortable or upset by what you've typically regarded as normal office banter, quickly putting the brakes on the behavior helps reduce the likelihood that you'll end up in a lawsuit.

4.) How it affects the employee's physical or psychological well-being.

Anything that starts to affect an employee's physical or psychological well-being is probably harassment. Workplace bullying or taunts that cause an employee to make a formal complaint to management should never be dismissed as "just playing."

Keeping your business from developing into a hostile work environment is partially about prevention and partially about taking control of any situation that's already started. For example, if you do lose your temper in a staff meeting, a simple apology can often diffuse tensions and show that you have no intentions of allowing the environment to get out of control. However, if the situation has already escalated and there are threats of legal action, talk to an employment attorney today to discuss the situation.

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