A hostile work environment is a work place that is polluted by verbal or physical abuse. A hostile work environment is illegal if the abusive treatment is focused on an employee or group because of their sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion age, disability, pregnancy, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or other protected characteristic. For more information about the laws that protect employees from a hostile work environment, go to my pages on sexual harassment and racial harassment.