Statistics Homework

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When is it appropriate for employees to speak up when they feel they are treated unfairly? It’s hard for employees to bring up a topic that most companies in the Bay Area hardly ever address anymore. According to Sandberg “This helps explain why for many women, speaking honestly in a professional environment carries an additional set of fears: Fear of not being considered a team player”. In my experience, I tried to speak up and it felt like she had even more ammo when I announced that I would be going to back to school. She then mentioned it would be “way harder for me being a mom AND a student”.

Comments like that tend to divide the organization. That’s when the “birds of a feather fly together” form. Addressing the issues of favoritism has potential to make any work environment better unless resistance is involved. Some people are really just set in their ways and sometimes it may take a paradigm shift before you see any slight movement. Sandberg discusses the progress that women and minorities have made, but also addresses that we still have a long way to go. We all discriminate, we are all bias in some way or another, and we all practice favoritism to a degree. It’s now a matter of addressing the issue.

Who is still affected by favoritism? No one is immune from favoritism, discrimination or stereotyping. I was discussing the new schedule with a colleague of mine and it never occurred to me that he had issues with favoritism. He is one of the original staff members and he experienced favoritism from a perspective I never thought would have an issue. Matt, a 35-ish year old white single male, who said that every other person was favored. He said he had always been given a “left-over” schedule because management wanted to accommodate the employees who had families and other priorities.

In conclusion, all management should practice address issues of favoritism and discrimination in the workplace because it will promote a welcoming work environment and culture. In return, relationships between staff, instructors, and management will promote a better campus for our students.