The three types of hostile work environment in California are: verbal, non-verbal, and environmental. These three categories encompass every hostile work environment in California workplaces, and are prohibited under California law.
Being subjected to a hostile work environment is one of the most intolerable experiences you can have as an employee. Whether the hostility is motivated by your physical characteristics, you’re being sexually harassed, or your employer is retaliating against you for reporting unfair or illegal workplace activity, working in such an environment is virtually impossible.
Yet, if you are like many California workers, you need your job. It provides income and a way to provide for your family. While it may seem like your employer holds all the power in this scenario, there are ways you can fight back against a hostile work environment.
Maison Law Provides Free Consultations For California Employees
Attorney Martin Gasparian and Maison Law have spent years working with California’s most vulnerable workers, ensuring that their legal rights are protected and their employers are held accountable for subjecting them to hostile work environments. When you work with our team of experienced, compassionate California hostile work environment lawyers, you’ll understand what your options are and how you can get back some of the power your employer took from you. To find out more, contact us today.
What Is a Hostile Work Environment and is it Illegal in California?
Under California law, a hostile work environment occurs when unwelcome behavior is motivated by an employee’s protected characteristic or activity, and that behavior is serious and frequent enough that a reasonable person would consider it hostile or abusive.
Oftentimes, the term “hostile work environment” is associated with sexual harassment, but it can and usually does, also encompass other types of workplace discrimination and retaliation. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) outlines several characteristics that are typically used as motivation for a hostile work environment:
- Sex
- Gender
- Sexual orientation
- Age
- Race
- Color
- National origin
No matter what the reason is for subjecting you to a hostile work environment, when your employer does so and fails to correct the behavior, they are breaking the law. This provides you with a few different legal options, provided you can identify and prove that the work environment meets the legal requirements for being hostile.
Identifying a Hostile Work Environment
Understanding what makes a work environment hostile is only one part of the equation. While the law is clear that hostile work environments are prohibited, it’s not easy to identify what exactly makes a hostile work environment. This becomes even more clouded when you consider that certain industries and workplaces are simply more dangerous and stressful than others.
In order to identify a hostile work environment, you must take into account the totality of the circ*mstances. Not only is the conduct unwelcome, it has to occur frequently, even after there have been documented attempts to stop the behavior. Further, it has to interfere with your ability to do your job, and be severe enough that a reasonable person would consider it hostile or abusive.
To that end, all of the following have to be taken into account when trying to identify a hostile work environment:
- The nature of the unwelcome conduct or behavior
- Frequency of the unwelcome encounters
- Time over which all of the unwelcome conduct occurred
- Context in which the harassing or unwelcome conduct occurred
The “severe and pervasive” requirement of a hostile work environment is muddy, but in terms of how it applies to the harassment, acts can’t be isolated, sporadic, or trivial.
In applying these conditions to your treatment at work, it could be the key to confirming that you are indeed being subjected to an unlawful hostile work environment. However, there are several different scenarios in which conduct can present itself in the workplace.
The Three Types of Hostile Work Environments in California
The three types of hostile work environment in California are: verbal, non-verbal, and environmental. These three elements are present in every hostile work environment, and are prohibited under both federal and California law. These types of hostile work environment present themselves typically in harassment, discrimination, and retaliation
Verbal
Merely being teased or excluded by your coworkers is rude, unprofessional and possibly a firing offense, but it is not necessarily legally hostile. However, when the teasing and comments being made are based on your protected characteristics, like your race, age, or sex, it rises to the level of illegal. Examples of verbal hostile work environment can include:
- Discussing sexual acts or using sexually suggestive language
- Making unwanted sexual passes
- Telling offensive jokes about protected categories of people
- Making unwanted comments on physical qualities
- Using slurs or insensitive terms
Non-Verbal
In much the same way that simply making rude comments doesn’t necessarily mean your work environment is hostile, not every instance of physical contact or gesturing that happens at work means there is a hostile work environment. The key difference is whether the contact is unwelcomed and “severe and pervasive” enough that it becomes untenable to work in the environment. Examples could include the following:
- Posting images without consent
- Sending unsolicited pictures
- Gawking or staring
- Unwelcome gifts
- Facial gestures
- Inappropriate hand gestures
- Posting personal messages or pictures on social media
- Cyber stalking
Environmental
Here again, since not every workplace presents the same challenges or fosters the same environment, it can be difficult to tell if what you’re experiencing at your job is an actual hostile work environment. When it comes to the environment, there are some markers that could show it’s hostile, such as the following:
- Certain groups of workers never advance or are segregated in the workplace.
- Unequal pay
- Ostracizing certain workers because of their age, gender, or religious beliefs
- Encouraging offensive behavior directed toward certain employees
More than likely, if a combination of all three of these elements are occurring in your workplace, you could have grounds for a hostile work environment claim. Thus, it’s important to understand what your legal options are.
What Are My Legal Options In a Hostile Work Environment?
In California, there are three main avenues to pursue a workplace sexual harassment claim:
- Filing a Complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH)
- Filing an EEOC Complaint
- Filing a Civil Lawsuit
The DFEH and EEOC are the state and federal administrative bodies in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination and hostile work environment laws in the workplace. Filing complaints with these entities will prompt an investigation into the workplace conduct, and if found to be in your favor, will issue an order to make your employer fix the problem.
Filing a civil lawsuit will allow you to recover monetary compensation from your employer in the form of damages. These can include lost wages, emotional distress damages, and mental anguish damages. Further, the spotlight of a hostile work environment lawsuit can have very negative public relations effects on your employer.
Discuss Your Legal Options Claim With Maison Law
Standing up to your employer for subjecting you to a hostile work environment is not easy, and requires a great deal of fortitude and courage. Even with proper evidence, every lawsuit is a gamble. That’s why it’s important to work with the skilled and experienced California employment lawyers at Maison Law. We have a tried and true method of getting compensation for our clients. If you are being subjected to a hostile work environment and would like to know more about your options, contact us today.
