The American organization consists of more than 157 million people, and every single employee plays a vital role in the specific company. On the other hand, many employees complain due to boring or repetitive tasks and responsibilities. It sometimes leads to a hostile work environment.
Being an employee of the company, they have a responsibility to make the environment friendly, safe, and supportive for the new joinees.
For the warm welcoming and safety of the fresher, the policies take place to protect every employee. Somehow, there are some employees whose behaviors fall through the cracks, and it results in workplace hostility.
Well, a hostile work environment is not good for an employee’s mental health, and thus it impacts one’s career and financial stability. Let us jump to the next section to know about the hostile work environment.
What Is a Hostile Work Environment?
A hostile work environment in a workplace threatens employees and makes them feel unsafe, scared, uncomfortable, and unsecured. It all happens due to the unwelcomed and unprofessional behavior of colleagues or any other employee of the organization.
There is labor law in the state, and the American Equal Employment Opportunity Commission handles all the cases of workplace hostility. It includes all the problems related to the work environment harassment and discrimination based on age, gender, race, and other behavior that makes you feel uncomfortable in the office.
Work pressure, judgment, and other bullying activities also create uneven power dynamics and a hostile work environment, even if they aren’t technically illegal.
How to Handle a Hostile Work Environment?
Now, after reading about the hostile work environment, it is mandatory to know how to handle it and overcome all the issues without getting affected. Here are the following points that you must know to protect yourself from this situation and report against the activity immediately.
- Identify the Office Environment
If you want to make changes in your office, then you have to examine the environment. While doing this, you will get to know about many things and can judge from where the hostility is coming from, whether the whole office is involved in this activity or some people are doing this. Some of the prime activities that take place are:
- Sexual Harassment
- Discrimination
- Workplace Victimization
- Abusive Things
- Bad Touch
When the above activities happen in the office environment, people tend to ignore the behavior. It leads to the sinful cycle of hostile work environment harassment. To avoid this, you can implement the training schemes as they are a great way to highlight the issues in the behavior, and you can find out the ways also. Some team-building activities can also help in between. The whole idea is to address and reform the environment to make everyone happy.
- Talk Individually
In today’s world, people say that they respect every individual, but no one knows what they are from inside. According to the research, it has been observed that hostility in the work environment comes from one or two individuals. To avoid their affected activities, you have to mark their behavior and talk to them. For a safer side, you can file a complaint against the misbehavioral activity with your manager or HR department. Whether the issue is minor or major, you will be on the safer side after telling everything to your senior.
Now the manager and HR will deal with this dilemma, and you must follow up on your complaint with HR, as it will indicate that you are very serious regarding the problem and want to see legal accountability.
- Draft the Company Policy
The wrong or inappropriate behavior increases when someone thinks that they can smoothly get away from this. If any employee misbehaves with someone and does not experience the consequences, then there are chances they do it again and again.
To avoid this, you have to ensure that there are some policies against the actions and behaviors of the employees. It will be best if HR familiarizes you with the company policy on the day of your joining.
- Avoid Fear of Retaliation
Some people take hostile behavior very lightly due to their victims, as they are afraid to speak about it. It is known as the fear of retaliation, and due to this sexual harassment claims won’t be taken seriously. However, if you think that the authorization is not taking any action against your complaint, do not be afraid to reach the higher authority and ask them for an answer. Until and unless the complaint is not sent to appropriate channels, you are not able to get an accurate solution. By doing this, you will be in a secure legal position.
Rounding Off!!
These are the few things that you need to know about a hostile work environment, and if you are suffering from the same, what are the factors that can help you. Reading this article will help you get out of the problem, and you can stand against the issue without any fear.
