Line crossed: Casual workplace conversation can quickly become hostile to others

Lisa Smith remembers the first time she found herself in the middle of an inappropriate conversation with a coworker. "I was at lunch with two male colleagues and a female colleague, and we were talking about our boss, who was getting married and taking two weeks off to go to Europe with his new wife," says Smith, who asked that her real name not be used. "For some bizarre reason, one of the guys started talking about how he'd never spend the money to go to Europe on a honeymoon because of what he did on his honeymoon, and it just went south from there, just graphic stuff, out of left field, wildly inappropriate."

Smith says she and the other two coworkers at the table didn't say a word. "We just sat there staring at our food, picking at our salads," she says. "And this was a guy pretty new to the company, so we didn't know him as well as we knew each other. Not saying that it would be right, but if a friend at work started telling me some sex story about his wife, I'd cut him off immediately, and he'd probably spend the next month sending me emails apologizing for what he said."

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