How to Deal with a Hostile Working Environment

When you work in a hostile work environment, you may be exposed to workplace harassment, discrimination, or emotional abuse. Workplace hostility can arise for many reasons. For example, there may be an established clique in the office, and as a new employee, you are met with exclusion or disdain. In other cases, a mistake on a project may lead colleagues to distance themselves from you, or extended absence due to illness may cause resentment among coworkers. You may experience hostility at work for no apparent reason. You may just work in a toxic working environment.

Regardless of the cause, hostility in the workplace is unacceptable. A toxic work environment can lead to stress, anxiety, reduced productivity, and poor mental health. Every employee has the right to feel safe and content in their workplace. After all, we spend most of our life in the workplace.

Examples of Hostility at Work

Every employee is entitled to go to work feeling safe, respected, and free from intimidation. Unfortunately, hostility in the workplace can take many forms, some of which may be subtle but still harmful. Common examples of workplace hostility include:

• Walking out of a room when you enter, making you feel unwelcome or isolated
  
  
• Giving you the silent treatment, deliberately ignoring communication
  
  
• Mocking or dismissive comments about your ideas, opinions, or contributions
  
  
• Excluding you from meetings, projects, or workplace events that are relevant to your role
  
  
• Undermining your abilities, performance, or professional credibility in front of others
  

These behaviours can contribute to a toxic work environment and may lead to workplace stress. You might dread the thought of going to work each day, and this can eventually lead to depression.

How to Deal with a Hostile Work Environment

If you are dealing with a hostile work environment, it is natural to feel unhappy, stressed, or anxious about going to work. These feelings are completely understandable. Experiencing workplace hostility can have a serious impact on your mental health, confidence, and overall wellbeing. While these feelings are completely understandable, a hostile or toxic workplace should never be accepted as normal. 

If you are facing hostility in the workplace, there are practical steps you can take to protect yourself and address the situation. 

Explain the Situation

You may want to speak to the people involved and try to explain the situation at work. For example, if the reason for the hostile work environment is due to a breakdown in communication, you may wish to discuss this with the individuals involved. Workplace communication issues are common, and sometimes just take someone to step in and deal with conflict resolution at work. Open communication can help to resolve workplace conflict.

Speak to Your Manager

Regardless of what is going on in the workplace, your manager is there to support you, and help you deal with difficult situations. If you are dealing with a hostile work environment, you should speak to your manager about the situation and seek advice on what to do next. The manager should help resolve workplace issues for you, so they don’t escalate into a toxic work environment. Managers are responsible for workplace conflict resolution and ensuring employees feel safe and comfortable in the workplace.

Document Everything

If your manager is unwilling or unable to help you deal with a hostile work environment, you may need to speak to your HR department. You should document everything so you can refer back to it. For instance, examples of the situation, who was involved and the time and date. When you document workplace incidents, it can make it easier for the HR department to investigate. You should know your employee rights at work.

If you are working in a hostile environment and it is not easily resolved, you may decide to look for another job. In this case, you should have a professional CV to help support your job search. At Inspired CVs, we provide professional CVs for candidates throughout the UK and globally. Contact us to find out more about our CV writing services UK, or order your new CV here and we will be in touch. We also offer job search support to our CV clients.