Relieve a Hostile Work Environment

Hostile work environments come in two flavours: legal and illegal. Although those of the illegal variety will cause the most serious repercussions, neither will be good for your business.

An illegal hostile work environment is one that results from overt discrimination by a member of staff against a protected class, e.g. ethnic minorities, women, or homosexuals. It is not necessarily enough that an individual within that class is singled out for abuse (this may create a 'legal' hostile work environment instead); the abuse itself must be related to the status of that individual as a member of a protected class. Instances of sexual harassment also fall into this category. These are extremely serious matters and you could find your business liable if a dispute of this nature makes it to court. Hostile work environments can also become illegal if they are deliberately manufactured by a business to make a particular employee quit his or her job rather than face the costs associated with firing him or her.
On the other hand a legal hostile work environment is one created when any employee is repeatedly singled out for excessive discipline, workload, criticism or abuse. Although this is not always a problem in terms of the law, countless studies have shown that a happy workplace is also a productive one, and if anyone at your workplace is making others feel uncomfortable it should be a top priority to resolve the problem before the performance of your business suffers. It is not unheard of for many employees of a particular company to leave at once if morale becomes low.

If multiple employees complain about the same member of staff then regardless of the legal status of your working environment it is important that the problem is dealt with swiftly and professionally. In some cases complaints can be the result of a breakdown of communication, but in others you may find that a particular employee needs to change their working practice or your business may suffer the consequences.

Sometimes you may feel that the complaint made by a member of staff about the way they have been treated is unfair or exaggerated. In these cases it is particularly important to ensure that the problem is dealt with professionally. Do not dismiss claims of abuse by your employees without taking appropriate action or you may regret it further down the line.

In either case the best option for your business will be to resolve the matter internally if this is possible. If your business lacks a dedicated department for dealing with internal complaints then you might benefit from outsourcing the work to a specialist in the mediation field. If you are determined to deal with the matter using existing staff members then you will almost certainly benefit from training with an organisation experienced in handling complaints of this type.