In theory, business transactions should be discrimination-free. It should be a situation where whoever is the best for a position gets the job. It should be a situation where the person with the most skill, passion, or reason has the most logical pathway to achieving their business goal. But it doesn’t always end up that way. All sorts of different discriminations enter the picture.
So, if you want to give yourself the best shot at equal opportunity business dealings, you have to learn how to work through discriminatory processes. You may have to deal with employment discrimination. You might have to deal with toxic workplaces where bias is built-in. Sexual harassment is a huge issue in the business world. And there is constant racial and cultural profiling at all levels of business as well that need to be dealt with.Employment Discrimination
One of the less obvious forms of discrimination that often gets overlooked at a business is employment discrimination. The people who choose to hire or fire different employees often do so not by merit, but by some other personal preference or vendetta. If you feel like you have been discriminated against as an employee, there is legal recourse. You can hire an employment lawyer to fight for you to try to get your job back. Having your own lawyer entails costs so make sure you have some budget to spare.
Toxic Workplaces
Discrimination often takes the form of toxic workplaces. As a manager, you might not even be aware of how your employees are interacting with each other, as it is sometimes hidden from you. But especially as an employee, you can research the signs of the toxic workplace and find out if there’s anything that you should do to alleviate the situation, or if you should be able to talk to an HR representative to fix the situation. Sometimes toxic workplaces encompass illegal behavior, and sometimes it is just antisocial.
Sexual Harassment Issues
Discrimination often comes from cultural issues with gender as well. In other words, in some workplaces, sexual harassment is a huge issue. If companies have not put their employees through sexual harassment training even in the last two or three years, then some updates should happen. Both women and men need to understand that the world is changing, and the business aspect of life needs to change along with it.
Racial and Cultural Profiling
If there is any part of your business that uses racial or cultural profiling as part of its financial or product model, then there are immediate things that need to be fixed. This type of discrimination specifically means that a business is operating in a way that creates exclusion to a part of the public at large. If you want to fight against this discriminatory type of behavior, it has to start from the top of the company and work its way down.
Originally posted on December 3, 2018 @ 8:07 am