Beyond the Obvious: Workplace Harassment
Harassment in the workplace is no longer limited to egregious slurs or overt discrimination. As workplace interactions evolve across video calls, third-party interactions, and informal exchanges, so do the contexts in which courts and enforcement agencies scrutinize conduct.
Today’s harassment landscape encompasses more subtle dynamics such as microaggressions, third-party instigation, and remote-environment behavior. Employers must understand not just what the law prohibits, but how evolving standards of professional conduct affect risk, compliance, and workplace culture.
At its core, the law remains unchanged: harassment is prohibited when it creates a hostile work environment or results in adverse employment actions based on protected characteristics. But how that standard is applied continues to develop in real time.
The Law Hasn’t Changed, Its Reach Has
Federal law, principally Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits harassment of any employee because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, age (40+), disability, and genetic information. The same legal principles apply across:
Harassing conduct by supervisors, coworkers, or agents
Hostile work environment claims
Quid pro quo harassment
Importantly, harassment is not limited to physical spaces. Conduct that occurs in virtual environments (email, chat apps, video conferencing) can provide a basis for liability when it reflects in behavior that is unwelcome, severe or pervasive, and based on a protected status.
Microaggressions Create Big Problems
A core shift in recent years has been the increasing legal and cultural attention paid to microaggressions — everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights that communicate hostile or derogatory messages, often unconsciously.
Microaggressions can take many forms:
Repeatedly mispronouncing a colleague’s name after being corrected
Commenting on someone’s “culture” or “accent” in ways that imply inferiority
Jokes or remarks about gender roles, sexual orientation, or disability presented as humor
By themselves, isolated comments may not meet the legal standard for a hostile work environment. But courts and agencies are increasingly mindful that patterns of conduct can cumulatively create a work environment that a reasonable person would find intimidating or oppressive.
What courts are watching:
Whether the conduct was repeated rather than a one-time comment
Whether the environment would be viewed as hostile by a reasonable person
The cumulative effect of seemingly minor comments or actions
Whether the employer responded effectively once aware of the conduct
Employers should understand that while not all microaggressions rise to actionable harassment, they can contribute to a hostile work environment claim, especially if left unaddressed.
Harassment Doesn’t Have to Come from Inside the Company
Harassment does not have to involve an employee to be actionable. Courts and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) continue to hold employers accountable when third parties create a hostile environment and the employer knows, or should have known, about it.
Third-party sources include:
Customers or clients
Vendors or contractors
Patients or residents in healthcare settings
Event attendees
For example, a sales representative repeatedly subjected to racially derogatory comments during client meetings may have a valid hostile work environment claim if the employer fails to intervene meaningfully after learning of the conduct.
Key compliance principles:
Employers must not turn a blind eye to harassment simply because it originates outside the staff hierarchy
Effective complaint procedures should clearly encompass third-party conduct
Supervisors and HR teams should be trained to recognize and respond to non-employee-originating harassment
The Virtual Workplace Is Still a Workplace
The rise of remote and hybrid work has added complexity to harassment risk:
Video calls may replicate real-world harassment (e.g., offensive comments, gestures, side conversations)
Chat apps (Slack, Teams, group texts) can be venues for unwelcome comments, emojis, or exclusionary behavior
Screenshots and recordings can circulate inappropriate content beyond the original audience
Virtual backgrounds or avatars may be used to convey offensive messages
Courts and enforcement agencies recognize that the medium does not change the legal analysis: harassment in a Zoom chat can be just as actionable as in a hallway conversation if it is severe or pervasive and targets a protected characteristic.
Best practices for remote environments include:
Clear codes of conduct for virtual platforms
Workplace communication policies that explicitly cover digital interactions
Prompt response protocols for complaints arising from virtual conduct
What Employers Are Expected to Do Consistently
As of late 2025, several enforcement trends bear watching:
Cumulative conduct assessments: Agencies and courts are more willing to consider whether patterns of conduct — taken together — create a hostile work environment, even if no single act is egregious.
Intersectional claims: Harassment claims that involve overlapping protected characteristics (e.g., sex and race) are being recognized with more nuance.
Digital conduct: Virtual interactions are treated consistently with in-person behavior; platforms do not confer immunity from liability.
Third-party accountability: Employers are expected to act when non-employees create a hostile environment that affects employees.
None of these trends change the law itself, but they shape how compliance is evaluated in practice.
Moving Toward a Healthier Work Culture
Workplace harassment is no longer defined only by its extremes. Employers should be attentive not just to the obvious cases, but to the subtler conduct that can erode trust, undermine careers, and, ultimately, lead to legal exposure.
In today’s workplaces — especially those that are hybrid, digital, or customer-facing — nuance matters, and so does process.
If your organization needs help evaluating or updating harassment policies, conducting training, or responding to a difficult complaint, our employment law team is here to support you with current, practical, and risk-aware guidance.