I think the common conception of a hostile work environment is a work environment that is unpleasant, generally sucks, or that makes you unhappy.

However, as you can see above not only must the environment be intimidating, hostile, and/or offensive, the hostility you are enduring .

However, the issue of harassment has become increasingly well known and by fiscal year 2003, 17.6% of the total discrimination charges filed with the EEOC were harassment claims. This makes harassment determinations difficult – not just for courts attempting to apply legal standards – but for human resource professionals and employment law specialists attempting to determine whether actionable harassment has occurred. In deciding how much is enough, courts generally consider "the totality of the circumstances," including: the frequency of the discriminatory conduct, the severity of the conduct, whether the conduct is physically threatening and whether the conduct unreasonably interferes with an employee’s work performance.

For harassment to be actionable under Title VII the offensive conduct must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create a hostile working environment. No one factor is required in order to find actionable harassment, and there is no precise formula to use when considering these factors.

To be unlawful, the conduct must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to reasonable people.Both victims and witnesses are protected under the relevant laws.The courts recognize that witnesses too might suffer consequences of workplace hostility, even though they were not the direct targets.This means that if your boss is a jerk to everyone including you, you won’t have a hostile work environment claim–the harassment must be based on your membership in legally recognized protected class.Understanding Hostile Work Environments Gathering Evidence Reporting to Administrative Agencies Suing for Harassment Community Q&A Harassment comes in many forms and involves more than touching or making “quid pro quo” offers where continued employment is offered in exchange for sexual favors.