Favoritism in the workplace is something you might experience during your work life. We’ve probably all heard the old saying about the boss’s son. It’s probably one of the oldest example of favoritism in the workplace and it’s an analogy for a person who is an undeserving position just because of who they know. In this case, it’s the boss’s son who got the job because he happens to be the boss’s son.
The other word for this sort of treatment is nepotism. If you work in a family-run business you might notice a number of family members who hold key positions in the firm. Some of these people may hold jobs they deserve, others not so much. Certainly, if the family happens to be grooming a family member to take over the company at some point, you’ll probably notice this person on the fast track up the corporate ladder and wonder if they’d have made this quick ascension if not for their last name.
Another classic example of favoritism in the workplace is when a new manager or executive gets hired and immediately starts bringing in “their own people.” This typically involves them hiring their former staff from another company and either replacing the current people in the job or possibly diminishing their roles in favor of their friends who they just hired.
In other words, it’s favoritism that appears to result in someone getting something that they don’t really deserve and that they got only because they were unfairly favored over a more deserving person.
What can you do to combat favoritism in the workplace?
At the end of the day, a number of things will come into play that makes this really a situation-specific problem.
In some cases, you might be able to address the problem and get a favorable response. In other cases, it might be out of your hands. Certainly, the examples I gave above may not give you too much in the way of leverage to achieve a positive resolution if you happen to be the person who got bumped for the boss’s son or if you happen to be a person whose role is being marginalized because a new executive has brought in their own people.
In some cases, there might be a legal case where the law is on your side but your specific instance and the rules and laws where you live will certainly apply.
In my career, I’ve witnessed both of the examples above – the boss’s son analogy and the executive who brings in “their own people” – which is why I mentioned them.
In the case of the boss’s son, he was a fairly mediocre individual who just happened to be the guy who was going to eventually run the company once his family decided they wanted to retire. Not much anyone could do about that. That was the family’s decision. In the case of the people who worked there, some of us wondered “do I really want to continue working for this company and for this family and helping them grow a company I know will eventually be run by a guy who only achieved this level because of his last name?”
In the case of the executive who brought in their friends in key positions, this didn’t affect me personally but I saw it from afar. It was certainly well known in the company and people spoke openly about it. In fact when a new manager was announced, the first thing that people would automatically wonder was which company did this new manager use to work at with the executive in question. It was a given that the new hire was a friend of the executive. And in most cases, they were.
In this case of favoritism in the workplace, some of the managers who quickly realized that they weren’t part of the executive’s inner circle or group of friends, did something to address the issue.
They quit and got a new job elsewhere.
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