How To Deal With Discrimination At Work
Over time, discrimination in the workplace has become a common topic. This can be defined as unjust or prejudicial treatment of different people.
There are several kinds of discrimination that can occur in the workplace, and they might be on the grounds of age, disability, national origin, pregnancy, religion, sex, and more.
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Coping with discrimination or intuitional racism at work can be pretty challenging as it affects one emotionally and mentally.
You might say reporting discrimination at work is not easy, but it will only worsen if necessary actions are not taken. If you feel you are being discriminated against in your workplace, you must know how to deal with it.
Knowing the laws that protect you as an employee against discrimination is an excellent place to start.
If you are not aware, many laws protect employees against discrimination in workplaces, among which are:
Human Rights law in most countries protects employees from being discriminated against based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin.
Discrimination At Work
How Do You Know You Are Being Discriminated In Your Workplace?
- If you are mistreated because of your race or skin type and denied opportunities.
- If you are being degraded, offended, or humiliated by another person due to your race.
- If you are treated poorly after submitting a complaint regarding your race.
- If you are being maltreated or degraded because of your sex or religion.
- If you are degraded or treated poorly because of disabilities.
What Are The Steps To Take If you Face Discrimination And Institutional Racism?
As an employee, you have certain rights in your workplace and laws that protect you against discrimination in the workplace.
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If you experience discrimination at your workplace, you can consider the following steps;
- Going directly to an attorney.
- Going to the Equal Opportunity Commission.
- Working with your employer to stop the discrimination.
However, before choosing the above options, the following actions are essential in getting a successful result:
Write a word for word, if possible, to get visual or audio evidence of the discrimination, including a timeline of events, in case of litigation.
Suppose you were sent e-mails, letters, documents, pictures, jokes. That made you feel discriminated against, save such items as you would need as exhibits.
Review and keep a copy of your organization’s anti-discrimination policy, if any.
Next, follow your workplace policy for reporting discrimination and harassment. Finally, you can put your complaints into writing, and it is also advisable to consult an attorney for legal advice.
If your workplace does not have a procedure for reporting discrimination, you may report it to your supervisor or the human resources department.
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You can seek legal counsel and the assistance of your lawyer in drafting a letter if you are too uncomfortable to discuss this with your employer’s designees.
If you put your concerns into writing, ensure your complaints are 100% factual and accurate. Include copies of your evidence, mentioning witnesses, if any.
Ask for an investigation to be made into your allegations and take disciplinary measures against the offenders.
You should also be notified after such a measure has been done.
After expressing your concerns to your employer, if you receive no response or your complaints are not being taken seriously, you can contact the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or seek the help of an attorney.
Discrimination At Work
