Fairness In The Workplace

Word Count: 1177

    Fairness in the workplace                

    American society is slowly, but surely, moving towards equality in the workplace. In the past decade laws have been passed that prohibit discrimination in hiring, retaining and promoting employees based on race, gender, disability and religious beliefs. Although not all groups have been included yet, the movement towards a more just workplace is evident. Nowadays, almost every single employer will have the sign “Equal Opportunity Employer” under the name of the company, especially when recruiting. However, even though companies have adopted these standards as a part of their corporate culture, not all people are able to fully appreciate and accept diversity in the workplace. Although there are many different issues to be considered, I believe that the most prominent issue is that of socialization – the way people were taught and learned to interact with the society at large and its members. This issue has many various aspects that can help understand the difficulty of accepting diversity. These issues include unfair and outdated expectations of others, fixed views on certain issues, and unwillingness to admit that problems exist and that they need to be dealt with.
    The concepts of expectations and fixed views intersect in a few places. Fixed views are not what one expects of someone, but how the person relates and perceives that someone. Strong views are often followed by expectations. For example if one thinks that someone else is a violent person, he/she will expect to see outbursts of violence. If one has been “conditioned”, by which I mean that through interaction with society on has learned a particular view or behavior, to think that homosexual relationships are “disgusting” or at least that they are not “normal”, one will probably find difficulty with dealing with such instances in the workplace. Williamson, in his article “Is this the Right Time to Come Out?”, discusses a situation that a young homosexual employee faced at work. His boss was unable or maybe unwilling to understand the parallels of homo- and heterosexual relationships. In this particular instance, the employee had a chance to tell his employer how he feels. Unfortunately, there are man situations where homosexual employees are afraid of being ridiculed or made uncomfortable about their sexual preference. As the article mentions, Adam’s boss was not happy about the situation because he was afraid of what the “conservative” clients would think. These conservative clients have the fixed views that I am referring to, and as long as people are unwilling to be open-minded, to change or soften their views, there will be no true equality in the workplace.
    As one way of expressing opinions, people develop certain expectations of members of other racial/ethnical/gender groups. There are also expectations that are based on traditions and earlier way of life, some of which are outdated. By outdated expectations, I am mainly referring to the way men still view women. Schwartz cites a CEO who asks this question, “Why would any woman choose to be a chief financial officer rather than a full-time mother?” Such view of women as primarily maternal figures puts them at a disadvantage in the workplace. Schwartz discusses two kinds of women: family-career oriented and career primary. Those women who choose to focus on their careers just

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