What Is the Meaning of Hostile Environment?
A hostile environment is one in which a person or organism is unable to thrive. The term is somewhat subjective, as different people or organisms will have different requirements and preferences, so what is a hostile environment to one would not be to another. Hostile environments exist in many different realms, human and non-human.
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Career
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A hostile work environment is one in which an employee is unable to do his work effectively due to the harassment or interference of management or co-workers. For women, hostility in the work environment often takes the form of unwanted sexual advances or other forms of sexual harassment. A hostile work environment can also involve insensitivity or harassment based on race or sexual orientation, or unkindness based on personal incompatibility. The workplace is often one of the harder places for an individual to deal with hostilities, because unlike a nightclub, a friendship or a recreational pursuit, the employee is economically compelled to keep returning to the place of work.
Military
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In military parlance, a hostile environment refers to a location that is controlled by the enemy in a combat situation. Hostile environments may be places to be avoided, or places to seek out, depending on the balance of power in the conflict and the mission of that unit at that time. Hostile environments are recognized as places of extreme danger where one's life is at risk.
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Emotional
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A person's emotions can be disturbed by environments lacking security or support. This is one of the most subjective fields in terms of a definition of hostile environment. Some people feel threatened and unhappy in environments where other people thrive. Often based on past experiences, perception of a hostile environment is a personal definition of a place as "not a good place to be." It could be a supermarket, a forest or a basement; if an individual experiences it as a hostile environment, it becomes one.
Ecological
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In ecology, a hostile environment is one in which it is difficult or impossible for an organism to survive, reproduce and thrive. For a tropical plant or animal, an arctic setting would be hostile. Conversely, any plant or animal from a boreal forest would have difficulty in the tropics. Organisms often cause their own environments to become hostile by exhausting resources or overloading the environment with waste.
Games
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As symbolic representations of the real world, games mimic many of its situations and phenomena. Hostile environments are very common in games, particularly in conflict-based video games.
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References
- Photo Credit barbed wire image by Aliaksandr Zabudzko from Fotolia.com
