by Sue A. Sponte

Created on: January 29, 2011   Last Updated: January 31, 2011

Discrimination in the work place, in addition to being illegal in many cases, is bad for the company.  It results in disgruntled workers or makes good workers leave.  The increased costs from turnover and the loss of efficiency from losing experienced workers, not to mention the risk of lawsuits, make workplace discrimination something that no worker or manager can tolerate.  There are some ways to avoid discrimination in the workplace, regardless of whether you are a line worker or a supervisor.

First, employees need to be able to recognize discrimination.  In the context of employment, discrimination means to treat two similarly situated people differently on the basis of some characteristic.  There are a handful of types of employment discrimination that are illegal in the United States, and they include: race, gender, national origin, disability, age (over 40) and religion.  In some locations, as well as for the federal government, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is also illegal.  Although the definition can be more complex, illegal discrimination generally requires that one employee be given or denied a tangible benefit on the basis of the discrimination.

Sometimes discrimination is blatant, in which case the only appropriate response is to use internal reporting procedures or a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to rectify the situation.  But in many cases, discrimination is subtle and might not even be intentional.  In addition, if the discrimination is not based on one of the six classes of illegal discrimination, then it will not be enforced by the government.  That does not mean that employees and managers should not work to avoid the discrimination.  Any time that employees are denied benefits or receive punishments for reasons that are not linked to performance, the morale of most employees suffers.  Even “legal” discrimination is harmful to a company because good employees stop giving their best efforts when the company appears to allow hurtful and harmful actions.

The first line of defense against discrimination is training.  Training on discrimination should be given to all employees, not just managers and supervisors.  Although the focus might be different for each group, all employees need to know how to recognize and report discrimination, and employees who are in a position to effect the terms and conditions of other employees’

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