Everyone deserves fair treatment at work. Ideally, you should be hired on merit and promoted on talent. Your workplace should foster an environment that makes you feel safe and respected while working your best to earn an honest living. No one should fear going to work because they may face undue harassment or discrimination due to their sexuality, religion, race, or gender.
To this purpose, many federal and state laws provide protection to the employees against this type of behavior and terms discrimination as illegal. If you face such discrimination at work, the best wrongful termination lawyers in Los Angeles can help you gain your dignity back.
How to identify workplace discrimination?
Workplace discrimination is not always easy to identify. Sometimes, you may get confused if it is merely some people who have a grudge against you or is it institutionalized discrimination. The first step to identifying prejudice or discrimination against yourself is to recognize its signs. Only then will you be able to better protect yourself and take timely action to uphold your rights in a hostile and negative environment.
1. Hostility from coworkers
Sometimes, a supervisor or other coworkers make inappropriate jokes against you. Some jokes are merely for a little bit of fun, but others may go too far into the category of harassment and bullying. If it feels like you are back in high school and surrounded by jocks that have come to take away your lunch money, then that is harassment. Frequent jokes or comments about your religious affiliation, sexual orientation, race, nationality, gender, or some other trait count as harassment, and you may need to protect yourself against it.
2. Lack of diversity in the workplace
Nowadays, you can find people belonging to diverse social sets almost everywhere. Therefore, it is a sign of trouble if you cannot find variety in your workplace. If all your coworkers, or an overwhelming majority, or all the management belong to the same race, gender, age group, or religious group, that may be a sign of discrimination in hiring practices. Workplaces should adopt a policy of inclusion in today’s world, not exclusion.
3. Blatant favouritism
If your management shows a different or better attitude towards your coworkers without a reasonable cause, if you are frequently passed over when receiving bonuses or promotions, you may be getting discriminated. Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, but thrice is surely discrimination.
4. A high turnover rate
The turnover rate refers to the practice of replacing employees with new ones. The old employees either leave willingly or are fired, but new ones keep coming every once in a while.
Not many people have a quitting attitude in this day and age. Usually, a bad workplace environment, discrimination, harassment, and bullying make people leave their employment in droves. Therefore, a high turnover rate may indicate workplace discrimination.
5. References to your age or gender
If your coworkers or superiors often remark about your apparent age or gender, then you may be facing discrimination at work. Bias due to age or gender is illegal, and you should receive equal treatment at work as other employees. Your opportunities should be the same regardless of age, gender, social class, fashion sense, religion, or sexual orientation.
