Harassment and Discrimination
We are all called upon to treat each other equally despite the colour of one’s skin, their nationality, gender or sexual orientation. This is because individuals have no control over such factors in their lives. However, it is tragic that now and again there are reports of harassment and discrimination in different disciplines such as business and nursing. According to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (n.d), harassment is defined as any unwelcome conduct that is based on an individual’s colour, race, sex (includes pregnancy), national origin, religion, age, and disability. Two conditions make harassment illegal. First, if the unwelcome conduct becomes an assurance or condition for continued employment. This means that the individual’s employment is dependent on their willingness to endure unwanted conduct (harassment). Second, if the unwelcome conduct becomes so severe that it would constitute a work environment to be termed as hostile, intimidating or abusive. Discrimination, on the other hand, is a different matter.
Legally, discrimination has two definitions: Direct and indirect discrimination. According to Laki (2014), direct discrimination involves causing unfavourable treatment to a person or group based on certain characteristics. These characteristics are not in the control of the individual or group just as in harassment. On the other hand, indirect discrimination, at first sight, may seem as if the measures put in place ensure equal treatment is being observed. However, these measures place certain individuals or groups in a worse position when compared to others (Sims & Dalal, 2008). A good example would be religious clothing in the workplace. A company may require all its employees to dress officially in the workplace. They would also require all their employees not to portray any religious leanings while at work. For Christians, it may be the crucifix while Muslims the Hijab (women). Although this ensures a level playing field for everyone, the Muslim women are especially disadvantaged since their religion requires that they wear certain clothing at all times. It is important to note that although discrimination and harassment seem different, they have a lot in common, in terms of how they are perpetrated against certain people and groups. However, the law should not punish discrimination and harassment unless it harms someone’s life or property.
Harassment and discrimination are evident in many fields. These include nursing and business. Generally, harassment in both these fields takes the form of various actions. According to the EEOC (n.d), offensive conduct towards other individuals may include jokes that are offensive, slurs, ridicule or mockery, interference with one’s work performance, epithets or name-calling, intimidation, physical assaults or threats, insults or put-downs, and ridicule or mockery.
Discrimination in the field of nursing is very common. According to Baptiste (2015), nurses use various phrases to describe their experiences with discrimination. These include crippling of performance, under persistent scrutiny, strenuous, erosion of self-confidence, and unwanted. She continues to note that discrimination has both emotional and professional consequences on the nurses. Discrimination is a source of psychological stress as it takes a toll on nurses’ self-esteem as well as their professional self-perception. Baptiste (2015) argues that discrimination in the nursing profession is manifested in microaggressive behaviours. These everyday slights, snubs, and insults may be verbal, nonverbal or even environmental. These actions or words usually communicate hostile, negative or derogatory messages and target people because of certain characteristics they pose. It is interesting to note that microaggressions affect people whether they are intentional or unintentional.
Discrimination in other places of work, that is, the business environment is also prevalent. The process of recruitment and hiring is one where discrimination cases might be seen in large numbers. Employers may apply their personal bias on specific people or a group of people when recruiting for new employees. Since employers do not want certain people or groups at their workplace, they are bound to disqualify them from getting the job even when they are the most qualified person. According to Hennekam, Peterson, Tahssain & Dumazert (2018), organizations are known to even circumvent internal and external policies on anti-discrimination to get away with discriminative practices in their recruitment practices. A common strategy used by organizations to accomplish this is by outsourcing for recruitment actions. It absolves them of the responsibility of upholding anti-discrimination regulations. The second strategy organizations use is conducting controlled in-house recruitment. Here, the management uses vague and complex laws or even uses business difficulties for reasons to make discriminative decisions (Hennekam et al, 2018). Mishra & Mishra (2015) identify age as one of the factors employers discriminate against when recruiting new staff or even firing existing employees. They define age discrimination as biased incidences against employees of 40 years of age and older. However, age bias also applies to younger employees who are now affected. According to Mishra & Mishra (2015), age discrimination is more prevalent compared to discrimination against colour, gender, and sexual orientation. This type of workplace discrimination, as is with discrimination in general, has negative effects on people emotionally, physically and financially.
There are different perspectives given when it comes to harassment and discrimination. First, one should recognize that everyone has a right to be treated fairly and in a humane manner. No one should be subjected to any form of harassment or discrimination at their place of work. In addition, people should not be treated differently or rather unfairly because of aspects about themselves that they were born with and cannot control. People should treat others the same way they would like other people to treat them. This is what can be termed as being ethical. However, the other perspective when it comes to harassment and discrimination is that people should be free to do what they want as long as they do not harm other people’s lives and property. This means that governments should not meddle in the affairs of business when it comes to issues discrimination.
It is important to note that no one is forced to work for any organization. As such, they are free to leave the place of work when they feel that they are being treated unfairly. In addition, the issue of microaggressions is one that cannot be easily solved. This is because they can be caused intentionally or unintentionally. It is also important to note that the world is imperfect. This means that there are people who will always have a bias against a certain group of people for whatever reasons. Sometimes the reason is that they have repeatedly had bad experiences with certain groups of people. Instead of turning to the government whenever such incidences occur, people should learn to walk away. In business especially, the business loses when it fails to hire competent people on prejudicial grounds. The only time the law should be applied in cases of harassment and discrimination is when someone’s life or property is in danger.
References
U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (n.d.). Harassment | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Www.Eeoc.Gov. https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment
Sims, C., & Dalal, R. S. (2008). Defining Generalized Workplace Discrimination. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1552401
Laki, I. (2014). The concept of discrimination nowadays.
Baptiste, M., (August 18, 2015) “Workplace Discrimination: An Additional Stressor for Internationally Educated Nurses” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 20 (3).
Hennekam, S., Peterson, J., Tahssain-Gay, L., & Dumazert, J.-P. (2019). Recruitment discrimination: how organizations use social power to circumvent laws and regulations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1579251
Mishra, B., & Mishra, J. (2015). Discrimination in the Workplace. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 15(4), 64–72.