As per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), there are up to 99,000 discrimination cases charged every year. Workplace discrimination is a serious problem that is only becoming worse as companies attempt to circumvent existing regulations through loopholes or vague documentation. Below introduces four warning signs that may indicate that you are a victim of workplace discrimination.
Unusual Interview Questions
Workplace discrimination sometimes overtly occurs during the job interview. To illustrate, many companies avoid hiring pregnant women because of the associated health care costs and required scheduling adjustments. Therefore, a male interviewer may casually ask a female candidate if she has or is planning on having children. As the female candidate explains her future plans to start a family, the male interviewer will silently come up with an official excuse not to hire the candidate. However, most discriminatory interviewers will attempt to guide the candidate into talking about prohibited topics through innocent-sounding questions.
Unequal Responsibilities
Existing employees may experience discrimination when their duties and responsibilities are either reduced or changed. In fact, employees may hold identical job titles, but be asked to perform very different tasks depending on things such as their age, gender and ethnic group. For example, a supervisor who oversees manual laborers may assign the dirtiest and most difficult work to certain ethnic groups. On the other hand, the supervisor may go out of their way to give the most lucrative and beneficial assignments to certain individuals. Finally, a supervisor may require female employees to perform housekeeping or administrative duties in addition to their regular duties.
Unfair Standards
Sometimes, unfair standards are created in order to create problems for certain protected groups. For example, a company that allows male employees to leave early for any personal reason, but not female employees, is openly discriminating. On the other hand, a male-dominated company may create a hostile work environment through purposely excluding female employees or requiring them to lift heavy objects that require two people by themselves. Anyone who thinks that they have been the possible victim of workplace discrimination should consult with Sattiraju Law Firm in New Jersey or a discrimination attorney in their area.
Insensitive Comments
Sometimes workplace discrimination happens every day through side comments and inappropriate jokes. For example, certain employees may occasionally make degrading comments in private about certain protected groups. This is difficult to prevent because of the random and isolated nature of the event. However, a supervisor who regularly puts down certain protected groups during company meetings and events is openly committing discrimination. Companies are legally responsible to provide anti-harassment training.
In the end, there are many more types of workplace discrimination. Common discriminatory tactics include personal interview questions, unequal responsibilities, inappropriate comments and unfair work standards.
