---
title: "Hostile Work Environment"
type: Legal Term
source: https://casebriefly.com/legal-terms/hostile-work-environment
---

# Hostile Work Environment

A hostile work environment is a form of harassment under Title VII in which unwelcome conduct based on a protected characteristic is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive working environment. Under the standard established in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson and refined in Harris v. Forklift Systems, the conduct must be both subjectively offensive to the plaintiff and objectively offensive to a reasonable person. Courts evaluate the totality of the circumstances, including the frequency and severity of the conduct, whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, and whether it unreasonably interferes with the employee's work performance. Employers may assert the Faragher-Ellerth affirmative defense if the harassment was by a supervisor and no tangible employment action resulted.

## Related Terms

- sexual-harassment
- quid-pro-quo-harassment
- title-vii
- constructive-discharge

## Related Cases

- albemarle-paper-co-v-moody
- alexander-v-gardner-denver-co

## Example

A factory worker subjected to daily racial slurs, derogatory cartoons posted on her locker, and racially motivated work sabotage by coworkers over a period of months has experienced a hostile work environment.

---
Source: [Hostile Work Environment — CaseBriefly](https://casebriefly.com/legal-terms/hostile-work-environment)