For Women Enduring a Hostile Work Environment, Here’s How to Beat It

While there has been enormous progress in recent decades toward creating a working environment built on equality, women in the workplace experience a variety of hardships every day, including sexual harassment, workplace discrimination, and more.

For every woman out there today dealing with a hostile work environment, here are three important things worth remembering.

1. You Aren’t Alone – The Workplace Bullying Institute has found that women being bullied at work are 89 percent more likely than their bullies to move on from their job one way or another. Of the victims, 29 percent quit, 19 percent are forced out, 13 percent are fired and another 13 percent are transferred. More than 65 million working Americans have reportedly either experienced or witnessed some form of abusive conduct at work.
2. It’s Not Acceptable – Unfortunately, women across the nation accept a hostile work environment as just another part of their job; something that everyone has to deal with; something that can’t be fixed. Wrong! Nobody should have to tolerate an abusive work culture. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not written to be ignored. It protects people from gender discrimination, which covers things such as hostile work environments and harassment.
3. You Can Make It Stop – Instead of living with it, take action to make it stop. If filing complaints with the human resources department and confronting the abusive coworker or supervisor does not bring an end to the hostile behavior, there are more options. By working with an employment lawyer, you can make workplace hostility stop. Prior to filing a complaint with HR, talk to an employment attorney about the best way to proceed.