In my previous job, I experienced favoritism at my workplace. Everyday is a struggle to get up and go to a workplace that clearly doesn’t appreciate you or your work. It is really de – motivating seeing someone who is preferentially treated by our manager. I feel so sad seeing my colleagues who are working hard and dedicated to their work being demoralized because of the unfair treatment, knowing that they spent most of their time at work and has dedicated at least third of their lives but can’t complain with the mistreatment for the sake of a paycheck. Seeing this kind of treatment in our organization has increased my feelings of resentment towards my manager and one of my coworkers receiving the advance projects or promotions that they don’t deserve.

I believe that this is an unethical behavior in an organization and I understand that favoritism presents several effects to employees. First is the loss of respect for the company leadership, because employees tend to lose their respect to their superiors and may be less willing to follow their directions. Second is the possibility of having a higher turnover rate, because if employees feel that their work is not appreciated, recognize and won’t be able to advance in the company will result to employees to leave. Lastly, the decrease of productivity and motivation, we all know that it is really frustrating when our devotion and work ethic to our work will continually to be unnoticed. They may lose their motivation and they may feel like it is hard to focus that will result of being unproductive and inefficient.

In conclusion, favoritism can jeopardize the trust of the employees to their managers or leaders. It can also breed resentment among employees, creates conflicts and can erode the respect and commitment to the organization to the point where the company is unable to retain the best and deserving employees. For me, there are several ways that the management can do to address favoritism in the workplace and how to avoid it:

  • Identify the Unconscious Biases. It is important if leaders committed to rooting out any actions or behaviors that are leading them to play favorites, even unconsciously, The management should identify what are the unfair treatment they’ve done to some employee and need to make sure that before making an action or decision, contemplate first all the technical qualification, skills and talents of the employee.
  • Develop open communication. Discuss this matter within the organization and ask them about how they feel whether the management are favoring them too much or overlooking them as it gives the management the opportunity to apologize and explain their reasoning, because it is possible that the leaders didn’t know their actions that made the employees feel undervalued. In addition, having an open and honest communication will give the management the opportunity to revise their relationship with the employees or redirect their management strategy to become more inclusive for a healthy work environment.
  • Establish a metric-based performance appraisal system. It’s the fairest way and easier to see who the top performer is by conducting feedback from managers and peer review if the management is looking at in terms of excellent performance for promotion or advance projects. Moreover, it also shows the managers about the importance of ensuring equal treatment of their employees.

References:

Employsure Blogs (2016). How Do I Eliminate Favouritism in the Workplace?. Updated Nov. 19 2020 from https://employsure.co.nz/blog/eliminate-favouritism-workplace/.