Examples of a Hostile Work Environment

A few examples of abusive, hostile, or intimidating behavior, which, if repeated, could constitute a hostile work environment, include:

• Unwanted touching
• Directing racial epithets at an employee
• Repeated comments or jokes about a protected characteristic
• Asking a pregnant employee about her sex life
• Insulting or degrading the religious practices of an employee or employees
• Displaying symbols or pictures offensive to a protected group
• Making sexual advances toward an employee or asking explicit questions (sexual harassment)

What Constitutes A Hostile Work Environment Claim?

If you have been subjected to a hostile work environment at your Florida place of employment, an employment discrimination attorney at Cruz Law Firm can help you to file a charge of discrimination with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC will investigate your claim with the objective of ending the hostile atmosphere at your place of employment and negotiating a resolution of the complaint. This may include your company agreeing to compensate you for what you have been unjustly put through.

If mediation doesn’t resolve the charge to your satisfaction, the EEOC will investigate further and, if cause is found, will issue a Notice of Right to Sue. For a lawsuit to be successful, you would need to be able to demonstrate that:

• You have been subjected to discriminatory acts based on a protected characteristic, such as your race, color, sex, national origin, or disability.
• The discrimination was directed at you and has been offensive, severe, and
• The discrimination directed at you amounted to harassment and was not an isolated incident, a lack of respect or social inclusion, or simply annoying behavior.
• The harassment kept you from doing your job properly or kept you from receiving assignments, promotions, or other career advancements.
• Your employer did nothing to intervene and end the harassment.

How To Prove a Hostile Work Environment Claim

If you’re facing a hostile work environment in Florida, it’s important to know the criteria for a valid claim. Here’s what you need to establish:

• Membership in a Protected Group: You must be part of a group that is legally protected against discrimination.
• Experience of Unwelcome Harassment: The harassment you faced must have been unwelcome and undesired.
• Harassment Based on Protected Characteristics: The harassment should be related to a characteristic that is protected by law, such as race, gender, religion, etc.
• Severity of the Harassment: The harassment must be severe or pervasive enough to change the conditions of your employment, leading to an abusive work environment.
• Employer Liability: There must be a legitimate reason to hold your employer responsible for the hostile environment.

This criteria is based on the legal precedent set by the case Gupta v. Florida Board of Regents, 212 F.3d 571, 582 (11th Cir. 2000).

The Cruz Law Firm can help you file a claim with the EEOC and follow up with a lawsuit on your behalf, as necessary. We can help you organize evidence and witnesses to support your claim and help press your case for compensation in settlement negotiations with the EEOC and your employer. If necessary, we can file a lawsuit on your behalf and press your case for compensation in court or in negotiations with your employer.

To help support your claim, you should:

• Collect evidence of the harassment, including printed copies of offensive materials directed at you, such as email, text messages, social media posts, or any available photos or videos of the harassment occurring.
• Write out in your own words what has happened to you and how it has affected you. Include as many specifics as possible – names of perpetrators and witnesses, places and dates where the harassment occurred, and attempts you made to compel the harasser to stop or to report the harassment to managers or human resources personnel.
• Seek out co-workers who did not participate in the harassment and ask if they’d be willing to testify or sign a statement on your behalf.
• Obtain copies of your personnel record, performance reviews, customer feedback, awards and citations, and applications for promotions to help demonstrate that you were an employee in good standing with the company prior to being harassed.
• Obtain copies of your company’s employee handbook, policy documents, memos, and your employment contract to document how company policies address conduct in the workplace. This will help demonstrate that your employer had rules on the books about employee behavior that they ignored.

As your hostile work environment attorneys, Cruz Law Firm will be able to obtain official documents from your employer as part of the process of litigating a lawsuit. However, it will be beneficial to have the policy and other documents as they existed when you were being harassed.