Favoritism in the workplace

by Nick

In my experience, favoritism in the workplace is more prevalent and more tolerated in smaller work environments, say companies with only a handful of staff. In this instance, there are fewer options for the person or people who are victims of the favoritism towards other staff.

Nick.

Response from Carl: Thanks Nick. I guess that's one way of looking at it although I'm sure there are visitors to this site who have witnessed or experienced favoritism towards other staff members while working in larger work environments too.

One interesting thing I've noticed with people who give me examples of favoritism in the workplace is related to the things that they cite as examples of the favoritism. They tend to revolve around things that their managers are doing like:

-giving more hours or more desirable shifts to certain staff members.

-being more lenient towards certain staff members and cracking down on others ie. the person complaining about the favoritism.

-being buddy buddy with only certain staff members outside work.

-showing favoritism towards newer staff members at the expense of those with more seniority.

Another thing I've noticed in some of the submissions from people giving examples of workplace favoritism involves the spreading of gossip often by the person who is telling me that favoritism exists. Often, they'll include rumors or innuendo and pass it off as fact or assume that it's true which is dangerous - especially if it turns out to be false - and distracting too since it takes away from the situation at hand which is doing your job as best you can and trying to figure out how to deal with the perceived favoritism that you believe is unwarranted.

Carl