Job Discrimination
Introduction
Job discrimination is the handling of a person or a particular group of individuals within the workplace less favorably based on various reasons, including their age, religion, disability, gender, pregnancy, and even genetic information. It occurs in different ways, for instance, through the retraction of specific rights, unmindful treatment, and also deliberately misjudge an employee’s personality and achievements. This discrimination can be done by two parties, the employer or coworkers. As a result, this kind of discrimination leads to anxiety issues and stress, forcing the discriminated employees to either quit their jobs through resignation or acting with violence towards their oppressors. An important fact to note is that job discrimination is mainly practiced in the selection process of employees by employers. According to (Velasquez, 2018), Job discrimination in the United States has specifically targeted massive groups, including those based on religion like the Muslims and Jews, those based on gender and sexuality such as women and those based on ethnicities such as the Italians and the Irish. This being the scenario, the “Equal Employment Opportunity Commission” (EEOC) is in charge of the execution of federal laws to fight against this kind of discrimination (Velasquez, 2018). On this basis, the various job discrimination types impact companies negatively through lower productivity and competitiveness.
The various job discrimination types are classified based on whether they are social or psychological. Social discrimination is defined as that which is correlated with mostly gender differences and age gaps between employees. Psychological discrimination, on the other hand, which involves factors like religion and disability, affects an individual mentally. This forces the individual to experience stress and a lack of self-esteem (Krinitcyna & Menshikova, 2015).
Age discrimination has been persistent across the years. It is commonly referred to as “ageism,” according to an article by (Zacher & Steinvik, 2015). It affects job applicants and employees across the world as they are handles unfairly because of their age or belonging to a particular age group. Job discrimination happens through various forms, including the prejudiced process of making decisions, assessments that are negative, and even unfair practices during recruitment and promotion (Zacher & Steinvik, 2015). This is often brought about by “negative age stereotypes.” This are biased points of view and beliefs about workers from a specific age group. They are, however, not backed up by well-entrenched facts. This factor thus affects productivity in a company in the essence that the employer-employee relationship is destroyed. The employees start experiencing low self-esteem and hence lower job satisfaction levels. Their commitment to the company decreases while their health deteriorates due to constant strain. After that, the employees will start being absent from the company and, at times, even retire before their time. The older workforce, which is mostly targeted by this discrimination, may omit training sessions, and thus, their knowledge and abilities reduce decreasing productivity (Zacher & Steinvik, 2015). Workplace discrimination also brings about lawsuits by the employees discriminated, thus leading to increased costs of paying the lawsuits and damage to the company’s reputation, reducing its competitiveness.
Religious discrimination has risen steadily across the years in the workplace. This comes in the form of disparate treatment, religious harassment, and accommodation (Ghumm et al., 2013). In the first aspect of Disparate treatment, the employee or job applicant is subjected to discrimination in the promotion and recruitment process, respectively, due to their religion. Here the employer mistreats the employee and makes negative employment conclusions on them for the simple reason that their religious alignments are different. Religious harassment, on the other hand, happens when the employees are pressurized to take part or not to take part in specific spiritual procedures as a term of being employed. This harassment also happens in instances where the working environment for employees is very hostile due to their religious background. On the last aspect of accommodation, discrimination occurs in that employers fail to accommodate the religious beliefs of their employees, for instance, dressing, grooming, and work plans (Ghumm et al., 2013). This decreases productivity in the company because the employee’s work motivation comes from their religious beliefs, for instance, their work schedules. Therefore if they are denied their religion, they would lack the commitment to the job; thus, not striving had to increase productivity and, as a result, decreasing the competitiveness of the organization.
Harassment, especially in a sexual manner, is one of the most oppressing workplace discriminations ever witnessed. Job applicants and employees in this context are harassed because of their sex. This includes unwelcome sexual approaches, sex favors, and oral or non-oral harassment, both of which are of sexual identity. Insulting remarks on an employee’s sex is also part of this harassment. This creates a hostile and exasperating environment for the employees. An important point to note is that harassment in a sexual manner is gender-biased since female employees are more prone to it than men (Friborg et al., 2017). This discrimination brings about mental health issues like depression and anxiety. This may also happen to colleagues of the victim (Gale et al., 2019). This harassment in the workplace leads to a decrease in job satisfaction and absenteeism from work (Friborg et al., 2017). This reduces productivity for the company as the employees are not motivated enough and lack the mental capacity to increase productivity and, as a result decreasing the competitive edge of the company.
Disability as a form of job discrimination is a significant issue in today’s workplace. A journal article by (Vornholt et al., 2017) claimed that people with disabilities were mostly unemployed due to job discrimination during the recruitment process. Here employees are mistreated because of their disabilities, even though they are as qualified as those without disabilities. It also happens when employers treat the individuals as mentioned above unfairly because they do not have a disability at the moment but instead has a history of it. An excellent example of this is cancer that is in remission. The employers, while practicing this discrimination, are going against the law since they should only refute accommodation to the disabled individuals if it would result in difficulty in the workforce. This form of discrimination may also come as a result of harassment from employers or fellow employees, for instance, through disrespectful comments about an employee with a disability (“Disability Discrimination, EEOC,” 2020). This leads to reduced productivity since the disabled employees feel that they do not belong to the company and thus are not committed to it. Therefore, if an employee’s commitment to the organization’s goals is minimal, competitiveness with other companies is also reduced.
Gender is arguably the most discriminated aspect of the workplace. Gender inequality is witnessed across various organizations through their practices and structures. According to a journal article of “Gender inequalities in organizations” by (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015), human resource practices are the source of gender discrimination. This comes about as a result of the policies and decisions made by the employers, which influence the hiring of job applicants and the promotion of already existing employees. Companies have across time been referred to as a hostile place for women since gender inequalities have persisted. The remuneration gap, according to gender, is a perfect instance of gender discrimination. Male employees are paid more than their female counterparts. Lack of women being leaders in companies is also another issue since they are not seen as leaders; the way male employees are seen. Another significant example is the fact that female employees take longer to reach their career goals i.e., career peak, which is all due to gender discrimination (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). This being the case, the female employee’s social and economic status is lowered, leading to stigmatization and stress issues. As a result, their job satisfaction is decreased two-fold, leading to a lack of commitment to the company and, finally, their performance, therefore, leading to a decrease in productivity and competitiveness of the organization.
Pregnancy discrimination is a significant source of concern in the 21st century’s workplace. This kind of discrimination occurs when a female worker or individual applying for a job is handled unfavorably since she is pregnant, has given birth recently, or has a medical situation that is associated with pregnancy. In this kind of discrimination, an employee may be fired because of her pregnancy or even snatched retirement benefits because she went on maternity leave. Another primary form of pregnancy discrimination in this scenario is whereby a pregnant employee is denied temporary reassignment of her job through more manageable tasks even though she is not able to perform the hard tasks due to her pregnancy situation (Salihu et al., 2012). This mostly leads to employees quitting their jobs to protect their pregnancies since hard tasks may jeopardize the pregnancy, which reduces the workforce of the company, thus decreasing productivity. In return, since productivity is minimal, the company is not able to withstand competition from other organizations hence lacking competitiveness.
Genetic information Discrimination is a sophisticated form of discrimination in organizations that is not well recognized. Job applicants and employees in a company are discriminated against because of their genetic information, which is defined as info about a person’s genetic tests and illnesses in the person’s family. Under this discrimination, genetic info is used to make decisions regarding the employment of the individuals. Since this kind of intel is considered confidential, it should not be brought across by employers in the process of hiring job applicants and evaluating existing employees. However, this is not the case in this context, as employers are seen to violate this confidentiality code. This kind of discrimination also comes about in the form of harassment, for instance, an employer making offensive comments on an employee’s genetic info, which brings about a hostile working environment for the employee. The organizations also practice this discrimination when they release genetic information about job applicants and employees to the public as this info is considered personal (“Genetic Information Discrimination, EEOC,” 2020). This discrimination leads to reduced productivity in two ways. First, the employees feel betrayed by the employers, therefore, lacking the commitment to attain the organization’s goals reducing productivity. Secondly, job applicants and employees may file lawsuits against the company due to a breach of confidentiality. This results in compensations to them by the company leading to excess expenses, which are seen as losses. Competitiveness and productivity, therefore, suffer as a result.
In conclusion, the various types of job discrimination including, age, religion, disability, gender, pregnancy, and genetic information play a considerable role in negatively impacting companies in terms of lower productivity and competitiveness since the employees and job applicants discriminated lack job satisfaction and therefore commitment to fulfill organizational goals. It is, therefore, of essence that to increase productivity and competitiveness, job discrimination is abolished from the workplace.
References
Disability Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Eeoc.gov. (2020). Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.
Friborg, M., Hansen, J., Aldrich, P., Folker, A., Kjær, S., & Nielsen, M. et al. (2017). Workplace sexual harassment and depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional multilevel analysis comparing harassment from clients or customers to harassment from other employees amongst 7603 Danish employees from 1041 organizations. BMC Public Health, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4669-x
Gale, S., Mordukhovich, I., Newlan, S., & McNeely, E. (2019). The Impact of Workplace Harassment on Health in a Working Cohort. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01181
Genetic Information Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Eeoc.gov. (2020). Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://www.eeoc.gov/genetic-information-discrimination.
Ghumm, S., Ryan, A., Barclay, L., & Markel, K. (2013). Religious Discrimination in the Workplace: A Review and Examination of Current and Future Trends. Retrieved 21 June 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24709879.
Krinitcyna, Z., & Menshikova, E. (2015). Discrimination Issues in the Process of Personnel Selection. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 166, 12-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.475
Salihu, H., Myers, J., & August, E. (2012). Pregnancy in the workplace. Occupational Medicine, 62(2), 88-97. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqr198
Stamarski, C., & Son Hing, L. (2015). Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400
Velasquez, M. (2018). Business Ethics [Ebook] (8th ed., pp. 288-307). Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved 21 June 2020, from https://lccn.loc.gov/2017004207.
Vornholt, K., Villotti, P., Muschalla, B., Bauer, J., Colella, A., & Zijlstra, F. et al. (2017). Disability and employment – overview and highlights. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27(1), 40-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2017.1387536
Zacher, H., & Steinvik, H. (2015). Workplace Age Discrimination. The Encyclopedia of Adulthood and Aging, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118521373.wbeaa061