If you are a worker who has been made to feel uncomfortable in some way at work, it likely affected you to a large extent. If the behavior was repetitive or disturbing, you may find it more difficult to concentrate at work, dread coming into the workplace, or your mental health may have even suffered. The behavior might have also caused you to question whether you are valued in the job you are in or altered your career trajectory for the worse.
When workers have negative experiences like these, they are often confused as to whether what they experienced was workplace harassment or workplace discrimination. It is important to distinguish between the two so that you can take action and get justice for the mistreatment you experienced.
What is discrimination in the workplace?
Workplace discrimination is any type of unfair treatment you receive that is related to a characteristic such as your gender, religion, race, disability or nationality. All workers or those applying for a work position have the right to be treated equally regardless of their personal characteristics.
Discrimination occurs when a work-related decision is made without a fair judgement, and instead becomes based on a worker’s characteristics. This could be choosing a non-disabled person over a disabled person even though the disabled person is more qualified and the disability would not affect the work It could be the decision to promote a person purely because he or she has the same religion as the decision-maker.
What is workplace harassment?
Workplace harassment is a certain type of discrimination, because it involves the unfair treatment of a worker because of a certain characteristic, whether it is pregnancy, disability or skin color. Harassment occurs when workers experience inappropriate behavior from a manager or a coworker that makes them feel uncomfortable. This could be a worker making inappropriate sexual comments, racial slurs or questioning a woman’s decision to get pregnant.
It is important to take action if you believe that you have been a victim of workplace discrimination or harassment in the state of Missouri so that you can get justice for what you have suffered.
