What is Unlawful “Hostile Workplace” Harassment?
Reduced to its simplest formula, “hostile workplace” unlawful harassment is conduct directed against an individual because of his or her membership in a protected class that causes the workplace to be “hostile” within the meaning of the law.2
How many instances of harassment, the types of conduct that will be considered harassing and at what point the working
environment will be considered legally “hostile” depend on a multitude of factors.
Explicitly racial jokes, sexual comments or expressed hostility toward a particular religion or ethnic background are rather easy to characterize as forbidden conduct, but other conduct can also lead to claims. Indeed, the offending conduct need not be “sexual” to give rise to a sexual harassment claim.
In one case arising out of a New Jersey workplace, a woman claimed that her co-workers, all male, went to great lengths to make her feel unwelcome and thus made the workplace “hostile.” The woman gave as one
example an incident in which all the men came into the office smoking cigars shortly after she mentioned that she was allergic to cigar smoke. The court ruled that that incident could be used as evidence of sexual harassment because the harassment was directed at the plaintiff because of her gender/sex.
The absence of any bright line identifying what conduct may be considered unlawful harassment is among the issues that make this subject challenging to address.
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