Image Licensing Protections: An Introduction

4 Signs Of Work-Related Discrimination

25 February 2020

Judy Alexander

Everyone wants to feel successful at their job. However, when you're passed over for a promotion or raise, you may blame yourself. While poor performance may be an obvious factor, you may also be the recipient of workplace discrimination. The discrimination may be due to your age, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, among other things.

Find out what some of the telltale signs are of work-related discrimination.

1. Unfair Questioning

You might experience discrimination right from the get-go. Interviews are prohibited from asking questions related to an applicant's protected class. They cannot ask you questions about age, marital status, or family planning.

However, be aware that such questioning can continue in the workplace. Friendly conversations about family, religion, or dating can trigger a supervisor's bias. Obviously, you want to feel comfortable about sharing such information with your co-workers. However, be wary if supervisors bring up such topics themselves.

2. Unfair Allocation of Duties

All jobs have their share of unpleasant tasks. Seniority often plays a part in how supervisors allocate those duties. However, you might notice some people from protected classes getting assigned specific duties over and over.

For example, in some companies, supervisors assign cleaning or other menial duties to specific ethnic groups. Conversely, you might see younger candidates getting all the assignments that allow them to showcase their work. Both of those examples are signs of discrimination.

3. Unfair Promotion Practices

In that same vein, you might see discrimination in a supervisors' promotion practices. All employees should be given opportunities to show they're worthy of promotion and a pay raise. However, perhaps a certain group of people is considered for promotion at a disproportionate rate.

However, you may have to do some digging to prove bias for a lack of promotion. You'd have to see who's been promoted previously and see if the manager seems to prefer a certain age group or ethnicity or someone without children.

4. Unfair Language

Most supervisors and managers don't rise to that level if they're obvious in their biases. However, just because they don't state them outright, they might still reveal their biases. You can hear it in their language.

Again, they're probably savvy enough to avoid slurs. However, pay attention to language that suggests, for example, a change in marital or familial status might indicate a decrease in work ethic. You might also hear them state they want their executives to "look" a certain way, or they might simply over-praise youth.

Watch for the signs of workplace discrimination. To learn more, contact an employment attorney.

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