Question: Does your company allow employees to play music while they work? Do you ever pay attention to the words? The EEOC says maybe it’s time you plug in.

A work environment can be considered “hostile” if, in part, the harassment affects a “term, condition or privilege” of a worker’s employment. We’ve all seen cases where oogling, touching and talking have created workplace liability. But now songs and singing, too? Some companies that don’t monitor their employees’ choices in music just might be singing the “EEOC blues,” as the following case shows.

Case in Point: Michael Cooke worked for 10 years as an assembly technician for a California tech company, Novellus Systems. One day, a Vietnamese co-worker began playing rap music on his radio and singing along karaoke style. Some lyrics included the “N” word.

Cooke, who is black, asked his co-worker to stop, but to no avail. Cooke reported this to his supervisor, but the boss ignored his plea. Five months later, Cooke took his complaint to upper management, who responded by prohibiting the playing of racially offensive lyrics in the workplace.

But the tune played on … Soon after filing his complaint, Cooke found that his starting time had changed, and that interfered with his ability to care for his sick father. Months later, Cooke was one of two employees laid off in his 38-employee department. Both laid-off employees were black.

Cooke filed a Title VII claim with the EEOC, saying the company didn’t respond to the racially hostile work environment for six months, and then it retaliated against him after he complained.