Favoritism Just Won't Work

 Favoritism Just Won't Work


No More Crying At Work: How To Prevent A Toxic Workplace | Employee Benefit Broker & Health Insurance Agency In NJ

                                      Image by COSMO

Chances are if you’ve worked a retail job you’ve either experienced firsthand or witnessed favoritism in the workplace.

 

Not only is an event like this frustrating, but possibly it may want to make you quit entirely. This isn’t uncommon to feel either as favoritism in the workplace leads to higher turnover rate and lower job satisfaction.

 

I have even seen it myself working in retail. When I worked in retail, my manager often promoted people she was friends with before people with more experience or skills. This made an environment where everyone was dissatisfied with how she ran it. Multiple people credited her and her favoritism as the reason they wanted to quit. Not only that but I knew people who cried after being treated that way.

 

And the fact is, that’s now how it should be. 

 

David K Lindo’s article “mis-management: work environment pollution” puts favoritism in the workplace as a form of workplace pollution. David states this kind of behavior leads to “a reduced production record and high employee turnover.” (Lindo 4). Trying to build a healthy work environment is impossible if work isn’t being done and people are constantly leaving. 

 

Ohio State’s University trustworthy article “Playing Favorites: A Study of Perceived Workplace Favoritism” highlights workplace favoritism as being shocking common as well stating that 47% of Americans report favoritism in their workplace. An even more shocking fact is out of 303 US executives surveyed 96% said they would promote based on who was their favorite rather than if they were qualified. Not only that but the article also states, “Employees not only deemed favoritism as a form a workplace injustice/unfairness but also reacted to favoritism behaviors with negative emotions toward the organization, less loyalty to the company, less job satisfaction, stronger intentions to quit the job, less work motivation, and more emotional exhaustion.” (Meng paragraph 6) 

 

It's argued that favoritism can increase motivation and performance. This just isn’t true if anything it motivates people to want to suck up to their boss rather than get any real work done.

 

Another argument is that “Strong relationships can improve workplace culture”. And while I agree that can be true, when it comes to favoritism it isn’t the case. Favoritism often leads works feeling left out or unappreciated for their hard work if they aren’t the favorite, which again lead to higher turnover rates.

 

All in all, management in workplaces should try to stop playing favorites and instead focus more on appreciating the people who work hard, and not the people who they just enjoy being around.

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