A Jerk Boss is Not a Hostile Work Environment

A phrase that is trending around offices everywhere is hostile work environment (HWE). As a human resource professional, this is one of the few things that will make me cringe when an employee storms into the office demanding their boss gets disciplined or terminated. The phrase is often a wildly inaccurate way to describe what is genuinely happening. The employee commonly believes that just because their supervisor yelled at them, denied their leave, or (gasp) held them accountable for completing their job, that the boss is creating a hostile environment.

Proving an HWE exists is a considerable legal hurdle to overcome. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) addresses HWE within its harassment definition:

Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.

In layman’s terms, the employee would have to prove that the hostile actions were due to a protected class reason. For example, the manager was targeting the employee specifically because they are of Asian ancestry, sixty years old, or maybe a transgender female. Keep in mind, this does not mean the harassment has to be from someone that is of different protected classes. A Caucasian male can harass another Caucasian male and still meet the definition of HWE.

If an employee does approach you with an HWE claim, still take their concerns seriously and conduct the investigation into the harassment just as you would for any other case. If the results are unfounded, use the opportunity to educate the employee about why the determination was made that no hostile environment was discovered. You can do this without letting them know the specifics of what the investigation may have uncovered. I would recommend using this to counsel the manager if needed, too. If the staff perceives a problem, even if it is meritless, this could lower morale or cause discord between employees and leadership. The manager needs to be cognizant of this perception and ensure that everyone is being treated equally and in fairness.

~Monica