How to succeed in a hostile workplace

Understand the dynamics of workplace hostility.

A hostile environment often stems from bullying, sexual harassment, or discriminatory behavior that interferes with an employee's ability to perform their job. In such an environment, verbal, physical, or visual behavior creates a workplace that is intimidating, abusive, threatening, or humiliating. It's important to note that hostile behavior can occur from anyone in the work environment, from employees to customers to suppliers.

A hostile work environment is created by managers or co-workers whose actions, communications, or actions keep you from getting your job done. This means that the action alters the employee's conditions and/or reasonable expectations of a comfortable work environment.

Hostile conduct, action, or communication must be serious. Not only is it pervasive over time, but hostility must seriously interfere with an employee's work or ability to work. The second form of severity occurs when a hostile work environment interferes with an employee's career development. For example, the employee did not receive a promotion or job rotation due to hostile behavior.

 

Manage your time effectively.

When organizing your to-do list, prioritization is the key to successfully managing time at work. Start eliminating tasks you shouldn't be doing in the first place. Then identify the three or four most important tasks and complete them first - this way, you can make sure you've completed the basic tasks.

Stay organized and communicate with co-workers.

Communication is the cornerstone of any healthy and effective work environment. All employees in the office are like family. For a healthy family, all members must agree. Proper communication is the key to organizational success.

Every employee wants to work where management has clear ambitions. Violations of management principles and inefficient use of resources affect an organization's bottom line. Employees also expect management to maintain an honest relationship with all employees. Therefore, having well-established guidelines is crucial to building trust and strong bonds.

Establish clear goals and deadlines.

Set clear and measurable goals to be successful, it must have a common goal and purpose. You should clearly communicate your team's goals and make sure everyone understands their individual role in achieving that goal. Ensure team goals are aligned with overall company goals. It's also important to set realistic and measurable goals. Set milestones and deadlines to keep everyone on track - keep your team informed of progress and celebrate team and individual successes together.

Clear goals are the key to any successful team. Before starting work, you need to agree on a common goal with the entire team. With a clear goal, the entire team is working to prevent distraction, wasted time, and conflicting personal plans.

 

Take advantage of team-building, activities.

Team building exercises provide a low-stakes (and often fun) environment for a group of people to connect and learn about each other's work styles, strengths, weaknesses, dislikes, likes, thought processes, and problem-solving approaches, all of which Contribute to the success of a team.

Team building includes "activities that help a group of people develop better interpersonal skills and collaboration," says Ashley Cox, a leadership development expert and founder of SproutHR. Team building exercises are designed to strengthen connections and improve communication and performance in the workplace.

 

Delegate tasks to other employees when possible.

Simply put, delegation means delegating tasks or responsibilities to someone else, usually a team member.

 

Take steps to defuse workplace hostility.

Encourage employees to speak up: Management cannot witness every interaction between colleagues. If hostile behavior occurs, employees should inform the harasser that their behavior is undesirable and must stop, and then notify management as soon as possible to prevent the problem from escalating.

From clarifying what unacceptable behavior actually means, to establishing a robust grievance process that everyone knows, the steps to building a supportive workplace are simple. Even if hostilities do occur, the situation should be manageable as long as you focus on making sure your employees are comfortable enough to speak up.

When an employee encounters a hostile work environment, the first step he or she must take is to ask the offending employee to stop their behavior or communication. If employees find it difficult to do this on their own, they should seek help from their manager or HR.