Employees often throw around the term “hostile work environment.” What exactly constitutes a hostile work environment can be difficult to define. In the realm of California employment law, there is a difference between a “hostile work environment” and a work environment that is occasionally hostile.
Dealing with rude or obnoxious people does not constitute a hostile work environment. A true hostile work environment, in a legal sense, occurs when an employee is subjected to abuse in the workplace because of the employee’s gender, race, age, religion, or other protected category. In California, unlawful harassment, i.e. a hostile work environment, is a form of discrimination.
Recently, a California appellate court illustrated this distinction. In the case of Kelley v. The Conco Companies, Kelley, a male apprentice iron worker was repeatedly subjected to sexually demeaning comments and gestures, as well as physical threats from a male supervisor and male co-workers. Kelly was frequently called a b*tch, was told he had a “nice a**, and was called numerous other sexually graphic names. His co-workers also barraged him with the f-word on a routine basis.
In its ruling, the court reiterated that the laws against discrimination were not intended to become a “general civility code for the American workplace.” While acknowledging that the words directed at Kelley were “graphic, vulgar, and sexually explicit” and “crude, offensive and demeaning,” the court held that the statements were neither an expression of sexual interest, nor a comment on Kelley’s actual or perceived sexual orientation. More bluntly, the court noted that when a supervisor refers to a male employee as a “b*tch” it is not kind, but it is not harassment in the absence of sexual interest or animus.
So what can employers and employees take away from this case? Unlawful harassment and rudeness are two different things. There is a difference between a “hostile work environment” and a work environment that is occasionally hostile. Legally speaking, a hostile work environment must have some element of discrimination to be actionable harassment. Yet the line is not always clear, so employers must still be wary of these situations and take steps to remedy the situation before lines are crossed.
