Discrimination ...

Discrimination at work – I know lot of people feel very uncomfortable talking about it, or even accepting that such a thing occurs in working space (let it be any profession). And for some people sexual harassment is the only discrimination they know at work. I have thought about taking up this topic many times  but refrained  , but couple of weeks back  – End of Aero Show at Bangalore reminded me how 13 years back one of my very close friend’s career got messed up because of  discrimination at work. In my friend’s case it was professional competition where his competitor a Lady colleague resorted to the most commonly used weapon by women ‘harassment’ to get the opportunity of covering Aero India show @ Bangalore, since covering this even meant lot of ‘self’ coverage …

What is considered as work place harassment ?

As Wiki defines It is discrimination in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types of harassment. The fact is we are so used to being discriminated that most of the time we think discriminator is kind of justified ,don’t we ? Earlier in my career I observed that many guys and girls who were technically and in general knowledge on same or lesser level but who had ‘Look Quotient’ higher would get picked up faster and for better

projects, later I heard from Managers that ‘good looking’ people in team inspires others to join/ perform better in the team :).If you are a Northie working in South Indian cities, you will hear lot of  regional language during official or unofficial conversation and the expectation will be that you learn or become comfortable with the language ; South Indian working in North you will be called Madraasi and most of the conversation official or unofficial will be in the local slang (I know how it feels to be felt out in a conversation :) )

A woman manager who is tough task master will be considered insensitive ‘Hunter Wali’ but a same quality Male manager is considered efficient and ‘Fire Fighter’, a soft spoken Male will be considered not very assertive (or aggressive for a guy ), somebody who always has a stand will be considered a threat or not so friendly or not politically aligned , and will be avoided and someone who always says ‘Yes Boss’ will get many opportunities  familiar stories?! :)  Other areas, well   I always felt that women were paid less compared to men for same skills/ experience. I have observed in any assignment abroad number of women is almost null compared to men, (oh I know the reason women don’t like to leave family for onsite assignments or sending women mean overhead of separate accommodation ,more cost, more responsibility) A woman asking for family accommodation or family visa  will be considered ‘sissy’ where as a Male employee will be given the option of taking the family (of course Guy is the head of the family and everyone in the family is dependent on him, in case of Women its different !) and if not, and if he asks for the same he will be considered ‘Family Man’ And most of the time don’t we think that all the reasons are valid , justified – are they not ? When you have so many people to choose from you have to have reasons for rejection also and how can we say that rejecting means ‘Discrimination’…  :)