What is professional discrimination? Let’s point one real example and a really hot case in recent days. What is the role of Human Resources in this issue?
“When your arms get in the way and your head can’t handle the complexity of the job, then you become an Agile or a Scrum Master. You give a shark left and right, trying desperately to compensate…”
This is a real comment on Linkedin. Professional discrimination in many countries is punishable by law, but what we must all do together is not fight it for the sake of the law, but for our own sake.
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Occupational discrimination and firm-level problems at a company level
In the Human Resources courses, we often talk and discuss with students the topic of the maturity of the staff as well as the entire organization. Reference: “BVOP Certified Human Resource Manager” (BVOP.org), https://bvop.org/humanresources/ It is a popular topic worldwide.
Employee maturity is one of the many factors that affect overall productivity and increase business value in various aspects.
It is a combination of respect for others, understanding of their world, way of work, profession, difficulties, and, above all, empathy.
Immature employees have exactly the opposite traits. They do not respect others, do not understand their work and difficulties, and express no support.
Often, employees in one profession also express their subjective opinions with a discriminatory note to other professions.
- Programmers speak negatively to project managers
- Designers speak negatively against developers
- Marketing against designers
- Financiers vs. Marketing
- And so on…
Professional discrimination is out there while the whole HR department sleeps
These phenomena are not new. In my working career, I have seen these negative waves for many years. This was well before me and will continue to be so after us.
It’s a mentality. It’s all over the world.
However, it is time for HR managers in organizations that claim to be up-to-date and respected to begin taking some steps to mitigate this phenomenon.
Every society is evolving. Slowly, but evolving. Without some engine for development in a positive direction, we are living in an era of inherited conversations about the eternal incompetence of others. Probably mom and daddy did.
Maturity is not age
Before we think that such an attitude depends entirely on our age, we must immediately accept the idea that age does not have much in common. It once was, but as the years progress, we often remain the same.
I have personally discussed the topic with senior management representatives of some organizations, as well as their HR managers, and they have shared with me that many candidates for a position drop off in an interview when they start asking about PlayStation and face-pleasing HR managers.
Their filter is very understandable, and organizations that seek the maturity of their team bring wisdom, and their goals and strategy are quite conscious and purposeful.
However, discrimination at the occupational level exists in all age groups.
How to eliminate professional discrimination in our organization?
It will be a slow but not so difficult step.
The first thing we will need is mature senior management and a mature Human Resources department.
This is the core of any organization. Business culture comes from there. And we discuss this topic in our courses before moving on to specific professional topics.
If our senior management and HR department are not mature enough to become aware of this topic, it makes no sense to continue talking.
If you have these initial necessary factors available, the next simple step is to make this topic transparent.
We do not change teams, we do not reprimand. People who respect themselves and are subject to such attacks take measures against external channels for the company, and then the attacker, as well as the whole organization, learn their lesson and learn their lesson.
All we have to do is start to shed light on this topic. It will become commonplace over time, just like, for example, that it is not good to destroy work tools intentionally and many more examples of any classic employment contract.
Senior management has higher goals, not just making money
Human resources and Senior management are at the core of any organization, but let’s clarify something important that few people are aware of.
Senior management doesn’t just mean high-level people. There are such everywhere. This means higher responsibility and goals.
Human resources do not mean simply recruiting staff and distributing salaries. It means working with real people.
Read next: “Managers are not only good or bad. What type of leader should I be?”, https://managerspost.com/managers-are-not-only-good-or-bad-what-type-of-leader-should-i-be/
15 responses to “Professional discrimination and problems in companies at the position level”
Another problem is that these people are fueling these waves; This happens in many well-known companies worldwide.
The described phenomena and ideas for coping do not apply to the state of Outsource, where everything is cheap and optimized to the maximum. Including HR departments. Former tariqas, merchants, internet marketers, and cable workers just migrated to a new type of business today and are adjusting to the market. In a small and poor country, we cannot develop such a culture. The big companies are just branches of foreign capital that serve the West. In these spaces, it doesn’t matter what happens if something is produced. It doesn’t matter who says what to his colleague, what the neighborhood is from, what his goals and visions are in life. Nice topic but not for our geolocation!
In a very simple way, senior management and HR are to blame! Every team manager should work on this element, not wait for someone from above to finish it
I just want to point out that in Bulgaria these events are also subject to sanctions and legal definitions are regulated. There should be no company with more than one person to diminish the severity of these events, and everyone should take preventative measures to avoid them.
People need to dissolve, give them that opportunity, but not at the expense of colleagues from the other department… it should be something close to, say, hire an outside coaching consultant to have fun. In this way, the inner culture will remain in good health.
Congratulations on raising the issue, but I cannot agree that this is a human resources issue. Rather, we are talking about two things: 1) Lack of upbringing where we can’t help, and 2) Lack of knowledge of the role. Here we can partner together, but only if there are respect and respect on both sides. Recently, IT professionals have branded HR as ignorant, unprofessional, idle, etc. I am aware that there are “rotten apples” everywhere, but it depends on the teams themselves how much they will allow us to do our job or to ignore us.
The phenomenon that you describe a little more directly is quite unpleasant and has become something natural. When many people hold one opinion, whatever it is, it becomes quite natural. If, for example, many people begin to accept slavery as something natural, it will easily and quickly become part of modern society. There are different offices in one organization. Delivery, Product, Sales, Human Resources, Technology, etc.
However, there is no other department that can take care of the problems in an organization when it comes to its people other than Human Resources. The HR manager is the one who describes the candidate profile, predicts peer relationships, creates strategies, and strives to handle everything. The rest of the HR department supports his ideas and goals.
When there is no senior management support, it is normal for the “rotten apples” to squeeze everyone else and the environment to turn into marbles. In this topic, I focus not only on HR departments but also on senior management and their strategies and vision. It depends on everything.
The level of HR department often reflects the level of senior management of an organization. Bosses hire the people they specifically need the skills they will need for the company. The responsibilities and all activities of the HR department follow the organization’s strategy and needs. If it is not intended to understand the problems of employees, Human Resources colleagues also lack these goals and activities.
This is most likely simply because HR executives (often actual company directors) are not interested in answering inbound interviews or interacting with employees. If anyone held this information, then reality should have been a more serious requirement than the HR department.
The level of intellectual baggage garnished with self-esteem and a total lack of respect for each person lowers our level so low. Even if it is a person’s cleaner, we have no right to be treated like that .. but people of all kinds, understandings too… Good luck to all of us .. if we can manage to work with smart people and skilled people 🙂 everywhere.
The topic is very serious and deserves very serious attention and attitude. Everyone knows that internal company competition harms the company more than external.
The same, even to a greater extent, can be said of in-house irritations and intrigues. Which department is the most important, this question is asked by every intelligent employee. Here, too, it is the role of senior management to explain that all departments are important, otherwise, the employer himself would be a big fool to create redundant departments and pay the wages of redundant people.
The negative attitude towards other departments is also helped by the misunderstanding of the other’s work. I will not forget the statement of the Chief Accountant of a bank since the dawn of democracy over the main dealer of the bank: I do not know this boy what works, but he watches TV all day and takes the biggest salary.
It’s hard to grasp someone else’s work, but it’s not impossible. It is enough to follow the whole cycle to understand the individual roles, at least in general terms.
The HR department is to blame for everything. It is so convenient, otherwise, we need to look at ourselves (our level of knowledge, skills, experience) and it can become uncomfortable for us from the real picture.
Most important to me is the role of management – the manager decides that a Scrum Master is needed, describes the role and looks for someone to fit it.
If this person does not have the necessary knowledge, skills, experience, then he should not have been hired at all. If he has the necessary knowledge, skills, experience, but his behavior is arrogant, uneducated, tactless, he is given feedback on what specific he/she needs to improve. Although, during the interview, it had to be judged whether he had the necessary upbringing, social skills, etc.
I am not sure that after the appointment of the man, he should be further explained what his role is – this should have happened during the interview when the so-called. psychological contract with him/her.
As a whole, today everyone gives a wit and speaks “competent” on topics from which he understands nothing … The Internet and social networks cannot correct this, but rather make it obvious to everyone.
Very often, company employees cannot look within themselves, and probably this was not a job criterion. However, when an employee is hired, he or she should begin to receive guidance and guidance on similar topics little by little.
If you describe the top roles in the hierarchy under the manager, they often lack the competencies or just the physical ability to take care of those things. That is why there is an HR department. He is the voice of senior management.
This voice should lead both the owners of the organization and the employees to the vision, mission, and codes of conduct. The HR department is the core. You mention psychological contracts, role explanations, upbringing (profile). All these things naturally come again from the HR department.
I read what I wrote, but did not understand what arguments you made that “Senior management has higher goals, not just making money.”
You say it means “higher goals and responsibilities”, but what if the higher goal is to make money for investors so that there is more investment and, accordingly, more pay for the senior management in question?
Let’s not lie, every employer wants to be profitable! Literally, “get out of hand” …
Do you think this is neglected somewhere? Or is it not in the first place for senior management?
The accumulation of capital and income is the most important goal of every senior management. Not so high, but basic. The senior purpose of senior management should be seen as the non-money-making topics, but all the side-issues that make up an organization.
That is why these side functions and responsibilities are often delegated to the HR department, and directors focus on their profits. However, if the HR department does not reliably perform these delegated functions, what is the authority that did not secure its role reliably? Those who created and appointed the HR Manager. There is no one else.