Discrimination is the unjust treatment of others because of a certain quality they possess. Discrimination reveals its face in many ways and in many locations – including the workplace.
There are several types of discrimination you may need to watch for in your career. Here’s what you should know about how discrimination manifests:
6 common types of workplace discrimination
Employees have protective rights against workplace discrimination, but to know what you’re protected against, you may first need to know what the different types of discrimination are. There are six common types of discrimination:
- Age discrimination: This happens to workers 45 years of age and older, and can affect their ability to get hired or promoted or even retain their jobs.
- Race discrimination: This targets someone based on things like their ethnic background or origin, skin color, cultural attire or natural hair.
- Gender discrimination: Typically (but not always) this targets women, who may be discriminated against because of things like their looks, their marital status, whether or not they are pregnant and so on.
- Religious belief discrimination: This happens when an employee is the subject of harassment or other negative actions because of their faith (or lack of faith).
- Sexual orientation discrimination: This can be directed at anybody in the LGBTQA community.
- Disability Discrimination: This occurs when someone with a disability is treated differently than their coworkers or denied reasonable accommodations.
Discrimination may come from employers and executives, co-workers or customers. Because of that, employees who are being discriminated against may lose promotion opportunities, face retaliation and experience trauma and stress.
If you believe you’re being discriminated against at your place of work, then you may need to reach out for legal help.