Unfortunately, work is not always a positive and enriching experience for some people. For certain reasons they face harassment at their workplace and are often working under duress in bad conditions. They could be facing discrimination for a physical impairment, their race, their gender, or any other number of reasons.
This type of treatment is illegal so it pays to understand the signs so you can go to an employment attorney like HKM. In this article, we will go over several signs that show you are being discriminated against.
1 – You’re often belittled
Offhand comments that try to make you feel less than are very commonly done by harassers. If you are in any way deemed inferior to them then they will seek to constantly denigrate you and your work performance. It could be in the form of emails written in a derogatory way but sometimes it is in front of your coworkers.
If there are often crude jokes at your expense then this is a sure sign of discrimination as the intent is to make life uncomfortable for you. If that type of language is used by your peers or managers and is tolerated by upper management then this is a sign that your workplace is toxic and something needs to be done about it.
Whether these crude comments are about your age, disability, gender, or any other reason just remember that you are in a protected class and can bring a case forward just for these reasons alone. There are often more incidents that are even more serious, however.
2 – You get less pay
It is highly discouraged to talk about your pay with your coworkers by management. The reason is that they will often want to underpay certain people and sometimes it’s because of their protected class. They may personally dislike minorities or women and will often pay them less than their coworkers with similar experience and tenure.
If you find out that you are being paid less than somebody else in the same position as you then ask your boss for a raise and see what happens. This will put into writing any reasoning they invent to pay you less than your coworker.
At this point bring some evidence to a lawyer along with other incidents of discrimination.
3 – Not getting promotions
If you have been an exemplary employee for some time but seem to never get the raise or promotion you deserve then you may have a case of discrimination. You’ll need to show some other incidents of discriminatory behavior to make a case, but usually when you are not getting promotions because of discrimination there are almost always other incidents.
There is no reason for anybody to feel uncomfortable at work and everybody has the right to work in an environment that is healthy. If you feel like you have been discriminated against then you need to know the signs so you can bring a case forward.
