Is This Workplace Discrimination?
If you’ve ever wondered, “Is this discrimination?” — this series is for you. We’ll break down early warning signs employees often miss, so you can spot the patterns before real harm is done.
It can be hard to recognize discrimination when it first begins. Most individuals - including those that discriminate and purposely cause harm - are aware that there are certain words or phrases that can’t be said in the workplace and because of this, they adjust their phrasing to something that hints at bias without ever saying it directly.
And while this may sound counterintuitive, you'll also want to watch out for individuals who swear up and down they have no bias at all against anyone. The reason why? The inability or unwillingness to acknowledge bias at even an unconscious level means this person will make no effort whatsoever to keep whatever bias they do have in check.
But regardless of which version you encounter, you can count on the bias and discrimination presenting as a series of subtle shifts and small slights that tell you something is off without ever being so obvious you immediately recognize it as discrimination. Each incident will be independently minor and have an excuse that seems plausible, so that as you speak up, it appears as if you are the problem making a bigger deal out of things that aren’t a big deal.
However, all is not lost - there is a strategic way to respond to discrimination in order to protect yourself and your career, but to do that you’ll first need to recognize the discrimination for what it is.
This series is designed to help you do that with explicit examples of what red flags to watch for and guidance on how to document what’s happening to build a pattern of discrimination that isn’t so easily dismissed.
Series: The Red Flags Signaling Workplace Discrimination
Each of these four posts reviews a red flag of workplace discrimination. None of these red flags alone is confirmation of workplace discrimination, but each is a sign you may want to consider documenting incidents and capturing evidence to see if a pattern of discrimination emerges.
And remember HR is always proactively protecting the company by putting their side in writing, so if you want to protect yourself, you need to be doing the same. If you want guidance on how to document and what to capture, sign up for JustiProof to try out our guided process for free: Start Documenting With The JustiProof App
Prefer personalized guidance? Book a consultation