You may have noticed someone acting unfairly toward you whether blatantly or inadvertently and dismissed it in the past, but it keeps happening and you want to know whether they are discriminating against you. The following signs will help you discover whether a person doesn’t like you, but you will need more than one happening on a consistent basis to be able to determine whether a person is discriminating against you. So what are some specific signs you might be overlooking?
One. When conversing with this person, he or she makes stereotypical remarks, jokes or false assumptions about your age, race, gender or religion. You find yourself having to defend who you are and what you believe.
Two. When controversy erupts regarding your particular age group, race, religion, or gender, a racist person will make statements like, “Your people, you women, you young people…” You feel angry and often feel the need to explain why you or your group is different.
Three. When asking a boss or supervisor about additional opportunities to better yourself, share ideas, and service others, you are met with a negative attitude and are told, “Thank you, but I can handle it. You should stick with what you are doing.” Sometimes people will act as if they are superior by saying, “I didn’t know you knew that…I thought your people weren’t interested in that sort of thing.”
Four. When you share your personal experience, the person will belittle it, debate as if they were there, talk about their “friend” who is the same race or religion as you and do other things to make them look like the authority on the issue.
Five. When you try to be friendly or make friends, you are greeted half-heartedly or not at all. The person doesn’t include you in on any activities, meetings or events. When asked about them, he or she always has an excuse to why they hadn’t included you such as, “I misplaced your phone number. I thought I emailed you. I told Bill to tell you…I thought you knew already.”
Six. When you come around people act as if they don’t trust you without reason. They may even deliberately set traps to catch you lying or stealing so that they can replace you with someone else.
Seven. You overhear someone talking about your race and when you come around they quickly change the subject and act as if they like you. When you tell them what you have heard they try to set you apart from the rest.
When you feel discriminated against you must not act on feeling alone, you must have solid information that proves that a person was acting unfairly toward you because of your race. A quick indicator that most people who have been victims of prejudicial behavior is when you see that other people of a different race are being afforded better opportunities than you and when you question it the company always has an excuse despite all the efforts you made to fulfill company requirements.
By Nicholl McGuire
Showing posts with label workplace discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workplace discrimination. Show all posts
Tuesday
Is Unconscious Bias Negatively Affecting Your Workplace?
Thirty percent of Caucasians admit that they have a racial bias toward African-Americans. But, are those numbers accurate? Social scientists studying “unconscious bias” say that number is low. In fact, some studies have found that 88 percent of Caucasians have a pro-Caucasian or anti-African American unconscious bias.
Unconscious bias is the concept that individuals can have a bias at an unconscious level that influences decision-making in ways that the individual is unaware. In other words, individuals who have an unconscious bias make decisions based on stereotypes with no idea that they and their decisions are biased. Social scientists have empirically demonstrated that unconscious bias exists in our society. In fact, the bias begins as early as age three when we are taught to categorize the world around us. Categorization allows us to make sense of new information, but it also leads to stereotyping. That stereotyping results in discrimination when people rely on those preconceived notions in making employment decisions.
Marianne Bertand (Chicago Graduate School of Business professor) and Sendhil Mullainathan (MIT professor) conducted an experiment to determine if employers were discriminating against job applicants with African-American sounding names. Bertrand and Mullainathan sent out nearly 5,000 resumes to 1,300 job openings in Chicago and Boston. Every employer received four resumes: an average Caucasian applicant, an average African-American applicant, a highly skilled Caucasian applicant, and a highly skilled African-American applicant. The companies to which the resumes were sent stated that they were aggressively seeking diversity. Yet, the study found that applicants with Caucasian sounding names were 50 percent more likely to get an interview than applicants with African-American sounding names. They also found that lower skilled Caucasian applicants received more interviews then highly skilled African-American applicants. The study revealed that employers have an unconscious bias when they see an African-American sounding name which causes them to react negatively toward that applicant’s resume.
The most well known unconscious bias study is “Project Implicit.” Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington developed Implicit Association Tests (“IAT”) to uncover an individual’s hidden stereotypes. The test requires subjects to rapidly classify words and images as good or bad while sorting images that are (depending on the bias in the question) African-American or Caucasian. Unconscious bias is exposed by how long it takes the subject to pair the words and images. Subjects who have an unconscious bias towards African-Americans will take longer to associate African-American images with good or positive words. Millions of people have taken the IAT. The IAT has found that there is widespread unconscious bias against African-American, even among individuals who believe that they have no racial bias.
The IAT has ignited a vigorous debate. And, the test has many critics. Richard Banks (Stanford Law Professor) criticizes the IAT claiming that “it is not clear that researchers have uncovered any evidence of unconscious racial bias that influences what happens in the world. The IAT may not measure real world unconscious racial bias at all. It may just measure awareness of cultural associations out in the world.” William von Hippel (University of South Wales) says that “we still do not really understand what [the IAT] reveals.” Banks’ and von Hippel’s criticisms of the IAT are consistent with those of other unconscious bias critics who argue that unconscious bias findings reveal nothing about how an individual will act. Critics say that people can consciously override their biases, but the research finds that implicit biases are a powerful predictor of how individuals actually behave. As Andy Poehlman (a Yale graduate student who has tracked more than 61 studies) explained, an unconscious bias “doesn’t control our behavior in a be-all and end-all kind of way, but it flavors our behavior in a pretty consistent way.”
Unconscious bias is increasingly being used in employment litigation to prove discrimination. Unconscious bias has been a central issue in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the largest class action discrimination lawsuit in history in which two million women are suing Wal-Mart for gender discrimination. The Court’s receptivity to unconscious bias arguments in the Home Depot class action and the FedEx class action resulted in those cases settling for huge amounts, $87.5 million and $53.5 million respectively. Unconscious bias is being raised in class actions against several other Fortune 500 companies such as Best Buy, Johnson & Johnson, Cargill, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, American Express, MetLife, and Morgan Stanley.
Employers also are addressing unconscious bias allegations in their dealings with the EEOC, the governmental agency that enforces the federal employment discrimination laws. The EEOC explains that intentional discrimination “includes not only racial animosity, but also conscious and unconscious stereotypes about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of certain racial groups.” The EEOC clearly warns employers to be attuned to the subtle and unconscious ways that race and color stereotypes and bias can negatively affect all aspects of an individual’s employment. The EEOC is focusing its enforcement efforts on eradicating unconscious bias. The agency even filed suit against Walgreens alleging that unconscious bias was influencing employment decisions at the drugstore chain.
There is considerable debate about whether and to what extent unconscious bias affects employment decisions. To date, employers appear to be handling the issue by claiming that unconscious bias does not exist. Perhaps, employers should learn from Wal-Mart, Home Depot, FedEx, and Walgreens (i.e., companies who failed in their arguments that unconscious bias does not exist) and instead, audit their processes to ensure that unconscious bias is not at work in their companies.
Shalanda Ballard is an employment defense attorney who has practiced in all facets of employment litigation. Ms. Ballard was named in the National Register's Who's Who and in Law & Politics Magazine as a Rising Star. She has spoken at continuing legal education conferences and employment law seminars. Ms. Ballard also writes an Employee Rights Blog at www.employeerightsblog.net.
Unconscious bias is the concept that individuals can have a bias at an unconscious level that influences decision-making in ways that the individual is unaware. In other words, individuals who have an unconscious bias make decisions based on stereotypes with no idea that they and their decisions are biased. Social scientists have empirically demonstrated that unconscious bias exists in our society. In fact, the bias begins as early as age three when we are taught to categorize the world around us. Categorization allows us to make sense of new information, but it also leads to stereotyping. That stereotyping results in discrimination when people rely on those preconceived notions in making employment decisions.
Marianne Bertand (Chicago Graduate School of Business professor) and Sendhil Mullainathan (MIT professor) conducted an experiment to determine if employers were discriminating against job applicants with African-American sounding names. Bertrand and Mullainathan sent out nearly 5,000 resumes to 1,300 job openings in Chicago and Boston. Every employer received four resumes: an average Caucasian applicant, an average African-American applicant, a highly skilled Caucasian applicant, and a highly skilled African-American applicant. The companies to which the resumes were sent stated that they were aggressively seeking diversity. Yet, the study found that applicants with Caucasian sounding names were 50 percent more likely to get an interview than applicants with African-American sounding names. They also found that lower skilled Caucasian applicants received more interviews then highly skilled African-American applicants. The study revealed that employers have an unconscious bias when they see an African-American sounding name which causes them to react negatively toward that applicant’s resume.
The most well known unconscious bias study is “Project Implicit.” Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington developed Implicit Association Tests (“IAT”) to uncover an individual’s hidden stereotypes. The test requires subjects to rapidly classify words and images as good or bad while sorting images that are (depending on the bias in the question) African-American or Caucasian. Unconscious bias is exposed by how long it takes the subject to pair the words and images. Subjects who have an unconscious bias towards African-Americans will take longer to associate African-American images with good or positive words. Millions of people have taken the IAT. The IAT has found that there is widespread unconscious bias against African-American, even among individuals who believe that they have no racial bias.
The IAT has ignited a vigorous debate. And, the test has many critics. Richard Banks (Stanford Law Professor) criticizes the IAT claiming that “it is not clear that researchers have uncovered any evidence of unconscious racial bias that influences what happens in the world. The IAT may not measure real world unconscious racial bias at all. It may just measure awareness of cultural associations out in the world.” William von Hippel (University of South Wales) says that “we still do not really understand what [the IAT] reveals.” Banks’ and von Hippel’s criticisms of the IAT are consistent with those of other unconscious bias critics who argue that unconscious bias findings reveal nothing about how an individual will act. Critics say that people can consciously override their biases, but the research finds that implicit biases are a powerful predictor of how individuals actually behave. As Andy Poehlman (a Yale graduate student who has tracked more than 61 studies) explained, an unconscious bias “doesn’t control our behavior in a be-all and end-all kind of way, but it flavors our behavior in a pretty consistent way.”
Unconscious bias is increasingly being used in employment litigation to prove discrimination. Unconscious bias has been a central issue in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the largest class action discrimination lawsuit in history in which two million women are suing Wal-Mart for gender discrimination. The Court’s receptivity to unconscious bias arguments in the Home Depot class action and the FedEx class action resulted in those cases settling for huge amounts, $87.5 million and $53.5 million respectively. Unconscious bias is being raised in class actions against several other Fortune 500 companies such as Best Buy, Johnson & Johnson, Cargill, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, American Express, MetLife, and Morgan Stanley.
Employers also are addressing unconscious bias allegations in their dealings with the EEOC, the governmental agency that enforces the federal employment discrimination laws. The EEOC explains that intentional discrimination “includes not only racial animosity, but also conscious and unconscious stereotypes about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of certain racial groups.” The EEOC clearly warns employers to be attuned to the subtle and unconscious ways that race and color stereotypes and bias can negatively affect all aspects of an individual’s employment. The EEOC is focusing its enforcement efforts on eradicating unconscious bias. The agency even filed suit against Walgreens alleging that unconscious bias was influencing employment decisions at the drugstore chain.
There is considerable debate about whether and to what extent unconscious bias affects employment decisions. To date, employers appear to be handling the issue by claiming that unconscious bias does not exist. Perhaps, employers should learn from Wal-Mart, Home Depot, FedEx, and Walgreens (i.e., companies who failed in their arguments that unconscious bias does not exist) and instead, audit their processes to ensure that unconscious bias is not at work in their companies.
Shalanda Ballard is an employment defense attorney who has practiced in all facets of employment litigation. Ms. Ballard was named in the National Register's Who's Who and in Law & Politics Magazine as a Rising Star. She has spoken at continuing legal education conferences and employment law seminars. Ms. Ballard also writes an Employee Rights Blog at www.employeerightsblog.net.
Monday
Tips on Tackling Various Workplace Issues
Competition and increased need for profits has led to businesses becoming more and more money oriented and concentrating less on people or staff issues. Many businesses fail to realise the value of its employees, who can be equated to the most valuable resource available in any company. In failing to do so, they actually fail to recognise or acknowledge the various problems faced by the employees while performing their jobs. This leads to a disgruntled work force, which in turn leads to lower productivity and ultimately lesser profits.
Therefore, as an employer, it is essential that you try and create a secure work atmosphere, where the employee is assured of your complete attention. Prior to creating such an atmosphere, it is essential to understand the various issues faced by employees in the workplace. Such an understanding will help you in developing a workable strategy.
1. Stress in the workplace
This is one of the most common workplace issues faced by employees. Stress in the workplace can lead to lower efficiency, lower productivity, high levels of tension and conflict, all of which ultimately leads to an unhealthy work atmosphere. This could also cause employees to take more leave of absence because they do not want to face the stress.
In order to combat such stress, you can try and promote a healthy work atmosphere by trying to respond as positively as possible when confronted with any stressful situation and being more supportive of your staff, especially when they are under stress and pressure. By trying to understand their problems and by being supportive, you are actually building a relationship of trust and giving them a sense of being understood, this is often enough to help alleviate the intensity of the stress.
2. Bullying and harassment in the workplace
Harassment or bullying in the workplace is another common issue, which creates an environment of fear for employees. Such feelings normally translate into lower productivity and efficiency, which in turn leads to lesser output and profits.
Life coaches and business coaches feel that in order to deal with harassment in the workplace, it is essential to counter the negative elements while promoting the positive aspects. You may try and deal with all the negative aspects in your office and make it clear to all that such behaviour is intolerable.
Additionally, however, you could also try and create a positive work atmosphere by making certain changes in the office lifestyle. This will help in promoting self confidence amongst those employees who have been victims while deterring those bullies from repeating such behaviour.
3. Conflict and dispute resolution
Life coaching also deals with issues related to conflict and the effect of such conflict on our lives. Conflicts are common in all aspects of our lives, so also in our career. While it is not possible to have a conflict free workplace, you can try and keep conflict levels to a minimum, and aim to create an atmosphere of security, safety and trust.
Handling conflict in the workplace can be achieved by remaining calm and focused on the issues at hand, instead of getting drawn into the conflict. Similarly, ensuring that you intervene at the right moment is also equally important in effectively handling a conflict. It is important that you see yourself as a mediator, trying to resolve the dispute between two employees rather than getting yourself embroiled into the whole issue. Amicably resolving issues is the key towards success in handling conflict in the workplace.
4. Fear of discrimination at workplace
Employers often walk the tight rope just because they do not want to be accused of being discriminating. However, what they do not realise is that this decision often creates an atmosphere of fear in the workplace. Business coaching principles state that in order to avoid such issues it is important that as employers you try and create an atmosphere of trust, where people can opine freely as well as raise issues that could be termed sensitive.
5. Tackling aggression in the workplace
Stress and high levels of conflict leads to aggressive behaviour, which affects the atmosphere at work and therefore it becomes essential to tackle the same before it affects the productivity and the efficiency of the staff. You can try and formulate policies and regulations for controlling such aggressive behaviour at workplace. Business coaches feel that having a written policy or code of conduct in place will go a long way in ensuring a stress free work environment and in instilling confidence in the staff.
There are many such issues that are common in the workplace. While it is not possible to deal with all such issues, the above are the main ones that can affect the overall productivity, if not taken care of. The tips given above are an indication of some of the various methods possible to tackle workplace issues and is not a complete list. Many workplace issues can be tackled by using your imagination and creativity along with presence of mind.
All the best,
Natalie Dee
London Life Coach & Business Coach
Natalie Dee is a specialist in life coaching and business coaching with clients throughout the UK and worldwide. To find out more, visit http://www.natalie-dee.com
Coaching promotes confidence, fulfilment and success in peoples' lives. Life coaching and business coaching creates change in communication skills and self confidence.
In her business capacity, Natalie offers a range of coaching services including one-to-one coaching and professional workshops.
Natalie Dee is also the co-author of an ebook on self confidence, for more details visit her website (as above).
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