Some people are naturally averse to work, but if you have navigated to an employment law firm website, you are probably not one of them. The work-averse people of the world have their own dark corners of the Internet and their own noisy social media channels. There, they talk about how work is for chumps and how the true nature of human beings is for us to do just enough work to survive, and if we can build a sufficiently robust freecycling network or endear ourselves to patrons, including but not limited to family members, then we will never have to do anything where the reward is a wage or a salary.
This mindset does not resonate with you. You like being employed, and at first, you liked your job. It is in a professional field that you entered by choice because you considered it practical and meaningful. The little annoyances about your job do not bother you; they do not ruin the emotional boost you get from having something useful to do. You do not mind that your commute to work requires you to get up early and sit in traffic, and you can live with the static electricity on the elevator buttons at your workplace in the winter. What you cannot stand is the way people at your job treat you.
There is no law requiring everyone to be nice or sociable, but it is against the law for employers to allow or perpetuate persistent, unkind, and antagonistic treatment of their employees by fellow employees. The Boulder hostile work environment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you if you love your profession, but your coworkers at your current job are making you miserable.
Adverse Actions and Employment Discrimination
If your employer creates a hostile work environment where other people at your workplace intentionally intimidate you or treat you disrespectfully, you have the right to sue your employer. If the hostile work environment is because of who you are, it is employment discrimination. The legal term for “because of who you are” is protected characteristic. Examples of protected characteristics include religion, race, age, national origin, sex, disability, and pregnancy, among others. If your employer creates a hostile work environment because of something you did, which you had the right to do, it is employer retaliation. The legal term for “because you did something that you had the right to do” is protected activity. Examples of protective activities include taking a paid FAMLI leave, reporting workplace safety violations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), or cooperating with a civil or criminal investigation about alleged misconduct at your workplace.
A hostile work environment counts as an adverse action under laws about employment discrimination or employer retaliation. If you are a target of discrimination or retaliation at work, it is possible that a hostile work environment is only one of several adverse actions that your employer has taken against you. For example, negative performance reviews and denial of promotions are adverse actions. It is legal and acceptable for employers to write negative performance reviews or deny employees’ requests for promotions when the decision is based entirely on the employee’s performance of his or her job duties. If you are wondering whether the unpleasantness you are experiencing at work is discrimination or retaliation, or, conversely, whether it is just because people are mean, a clue might lie in whether you have also experienced other adverse actions. This is not the only way to know. It helps to talk to someone who is not directly connected to the situation, such as a Boulder employment lawyer.
When Your Employer Mistreats You, and it Does Not Fit the Definition of Any of the Other Adverse Actions, it Might Be a Hostile Work Environment
Some employees endure a hostile work environment for a long time before they speak up because they cannot point to a specific adverse action the employer took. The employer did not demote the employee or change his or her work schedule without warning. The criticisms in the employee’s performance reviews are all directly related to the employee’s work. While the employee might think they are especially picky, the criticisms do not say anything personal and are not fabrications. If a hostile work environment is just a feeling, how do you prove it in a court of law? Isn’t it true that no one can make you feel insecure unless you let them?
A hostile work environment certainly affects your mood, but it is not just a subjective feeling. It is more like death by a thousand cuts. As an experiment, write down everything that your coworkers do that upsets you. If most of it is things like chewing gum audibly or showing you pictures of their grandchildren or pets, that is not a hostile work environment; that is just your coworkers being human, as annoying as it may be to have to work with fellow human beings. If many of the items in your notes involve comments about your personal appearance or family status (such as whether you are single, raising children, or living with a partner to whom you are not legally married), it is probably a hostile work environment. It is also a hostile work environment if your coworkers make offensive jokes and derogatory comments about groups to which you belong, even if they are not directly saying these things to or about you.
Boulder Hostile Work Environment Lawyer
If you have enough evidence of a hostile work environment to fill a phone note, you may be entitled to compensation. A Boulder hostile work environment lawyer can help you file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If your case advances past there, your lawyer can represent you in a lawsuit against your employer in court.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Hostile Work Environment
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about the hostile work environment you are experiencing. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
