Discrimination – Columbia MO aspects of discrimination in the workplace
While we love our hometown, it’s a discouraging fact that discrimination in Columbia, MO businesses exists. Many times, it’s the result of overlooked factors or actions that just weren’t thought through. Columbia’s workforce is also a contributor to discriminatory situations, with its diverse population from all over the world, to its students with limited work experience.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) website: http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/ list the kinds of discrimination that we’ll keep in mind as we read further:
- Age Discrimination
- Disability Discrimination
- Equal Pay/Compensation Discrimination
- Genetic Information Discrimination
- National Origin Discrimination
- Pregnancy Discrimination
- Race/Color Discrimination
- Religion Discrimination
- Retaliation Discrimination
- Sex Discrimination
- Sexual Harassment Discrimination
Let’s go through a few of the special things about Columbia that would contribute to a discriminating situation.
Limited Work Experience of Columbia’s college students
The college students we hire typically have a very limited amount of work experience, this puts them in situations and relationships with co-workers, subordinates and supervisors that they’ve never experienced before. Something as simple as a co-worker wearing an inappropriate blouse or shirt to the workplace could create a situation where young employees of the opposite sex make comments that could be interpreted as sexual harassment. A young supervisor might not understand that their comments about older workers, or the assignments they give subordinates, could be seen as age discrimination.
Columbia’s diverse international culture
With students from all over the world living in Columbia and starting families, our local businesses need to be prepared to handle the diverse appearances and beliefs of the workforce. Some religious beliefs dictate the appearance, clothes and daily activities of their followers. Rejecting those aspects in your workplace can place you in a lawsuit based on religious discrimination. Racial slurs of staff may be overheard and lead to a suit based on Race or Culture.
Young companies lead by first time entrepreneurs
As Columbia grows its business eco-system, there are hundreds of companies created each year. Many of them are created by first-time entrepreneurs. Whether they are created by former employees of other companies, or by students; it’s not uncommon for the entrepreneurs to be facing new kinds of business risk with which they have no experience. For example, when a business owner interviews employees for the first time, the questions they ask may seem to make sense, but can still be illegal and contribute to many aspects of a discrimination suit. Asking questions about hometowns, past illnesses, children, birthdays and religion may sound like a great way to break the ice with a candidate, but they are white-hot danger areas from a legal point of view. When offering salaries to new employees, the new entrepreneur will need to be careful to avoid the beginning of an equal discrimination situation by offering inappropriate salary levels to one sex, versus the other. Even celebrating business success can be a challenge for the new entrepreneur. Any event created by the company, even if it’s a party at the local bar, can expose the business owner to lawsuits when bad things happen.
As a business owner, you should have legal and human resource experts at your disposal to help understand areas where you didn’t even know you were taking on risk. Whether these experts are in-house staff, or outsources, it’s important to have them looking out for your company’s best interests.
As a local business service company in Columbia, MO, Moresource strives to provide informative resources relevant to business owners and c-level executives. We provide help with human resource outsourcing, payroll and risk managment, along with our other core services.