Florida law has a specific definition of what constitutes a hostile work environment. Find out if yours qualifies.

Your boss is a bully. Your co-workers yell at you one day, ignore you the next – and one of them’s leaving offensive notes in your in-box. And none of it shows any sign of stopping anytime soon. Is your office a hostile work environment?

Maybe. But like so many terms used by lawyers, the phrase “hostile work environment” has a specific legal meaning. It’s not applicable to a workplace just because your coworkers are mean and petty people, for example. Just because a workplace is intimidating, stressful or unpleasant doesn’t make it hostile, at least not from a legal perspective.

In order to legally qualify as a hostile work environment, a workplace has to meet three criteria: