The dynamics of a job are quite complex and intricate for an individual to manage. In the meantime, the worst can happen if there is favoritism in the workplace. Amidst numerous challenges and hardships to navigate modern-day work and hustle, favoritism is sticky.
Despite overt or subtle, it permeates organizational and professional culture while overshadowing the work of effective employees. Sometimes it neglects the work done irrespective of how fulfilling or successful it is in itself.
It is perilous and likely to push back the hardworking members by making them underrated, and undervalued, and they start looking for jobs somewhere else. This blog will let you know how favoritism affects the working environment and the efficient ways to combat it with examples. So, don’t miss reading it out.
Prior to beginning with its grayish shades, we think it’s important for you to know and understand favoritism at the workplace better. Let’s understand this phenomenon along with common types we witnessed around us.
In a nutshell, it is nothing but considered as preferential treatment to specific individuals over others often depending on unfair reasons or personal bias. You can manifest it in different ways starting from subtlety to overt that makes it a real challenge to detect.
Metaphorically, it is synonymous to a poisonous vine infiltrating the fertile soil of the organization, strangling slowly flourishing employees and overall potential growth. On the surface level, you may find it inevitable or harmless, but favoritism at work is powerful enough to undermine the true essence of collaboration and teamwork.
Favoritism at work can be classified into 3 popular forms, namely;
A study carried out by researchers from Penn Schoen Berland and Georgetown University of senior executives at companies with at least 1,000 employees revealed:
Another study by the O.C. Tanner Institute disclosed favoritism results in disengagement while increasing the odds of employee burnout by 23%.
Identification of favoritism at work is challenging when the signs are subtle or overt. You may experience that favoritism is right under the surface. But here we are to make the job somewhat easy for you by summing up some of the potential signs below:
If you notice that individuals are treated differently based on preferential access to opportunities, flexible work arrangements, and resources without any clarity or justification then it is the prime indicator.
Such action is guaranteed to raise fingers on favoritism and host resentment among the teams. It can divide employers and fellow employees too resulting in disruption for collaborative work spaces and team dynamics.
Another significant sign is regular observation of specific individuals for desirable assignments, promotions, or opportunities related to career advancement irrespective of their lack of requisite skills or experience, while overlooking the deserving employees.
Such instances will foster frustration and a sense of disillusionment within the rest of the members who are highly competent in their respective positions. This will lead to the feeling of unrecognized efforts along with declined employee engagement with time.
Privileges to access information or in the decision-making process may be offered to favorable employees often leading to them being more involved or informed in key initiatives or discussions.
It takes away deserving authority from other employees who can put many fresh perspectives to the table during discussions. It creates an environment with a lack of diversity hindering both efficiency and diversity within the organization.
Favoritism starts via social connections letting them be an integral part of the inner circle or develop personal relationships with decision-makers. It makes them receive preferential treatment in the form of advancement, support, and recognition.
It will perpetuate the culture of favoritism inevitably by undermining other individuals who are way more competent. In the end, it will cause stifled innovation and diversity within the company.
When leaders bear with sub- or below-par performance and behavioral misconduct from favored employees while others with high performance face repercussions for the same is a wreck to have within the company.
Performance issues are clear indications for undervaluing the ones with high standards or quality of work. It makes the hardworking and performing employees unnoticed whilst others are not being considered at all. Having the burden to pick and favor the preferable ones is major frustration.
Favored employees will receive consistent awards, recognition, and public praise for their mediocre contributions while the real hard-working peers seem insignificant to the employers.
Such unfair rewards and recognition distribution will jeopardize the top talent retention in the company impacting directly the sustained success of the same.
Many individuals are removed systematically from certain opportunities for high-profile projects, training programs, and career development plans irrespective of their expressed interest or qualifications is a potential favoritism sign.
This will demotivate talented employees for putting out quality work while undervaluing them to look for opportunities. In case, your company is not careful then favoritism in the workplace can lead to a high employee turnover rate with low retention.
Crucial instances in which the decision-making process involved such as performance evaluations, raises, or promotions seem arbitrary or lack transparency then it will cause distrust and lead to speculation among employees.
As the team is not included in the procedure fairly, lack of transparency will be questioned if it is backed by favoritism turning out to employee disengagement.
There are many other indications of favoritism at work you may experience individually or collectively. However, both employers and employees have to be vigilant to address such issues which can put favoritism in question.
Favoritism at work can be prevalent in numerous forms, often overt or subtle. So, going through real-life examples can help address the issue. Here we state some instances of favoritism with innovative and unconventional approaches for diminishing them:
| Category | Examples |
| Promotions and Recognition | Promotions based on personal connections, Unearned recognition, Higher pay for the same work. |
| Work Assignments and Opportunities | Preferential treatment in high-impact projects, Selective access to networking and training opportunities. |
| Policy and Rule Violations | Ignoring violations by preferred employees, Ignoring ethical violations, Pardoning poor leadership. |
| Perks and Benefits | Special perks and benefits, Selective inclusion in decision-making panels. |
| Performance and Accountability | Lenient performance reviews, No accountability for mistakes, Selective problem resolution. |
| Social Dynamics and Decision-Making | Exclusion from networking events, Prolonged personal chats during work hours. |
| Work-Life Balance and Flexibility | Undeserved flexibility in schedules, Skewed work-life balance for favored members. |
| Leadership and Resource Allocation | Excessive trust in favored employees, Disproportionate resource allocation to favored projects. |
To take favoritism at work into account you need to be adept at innovative approaches like inclusion training, implementation of diversity, conducting anonymous employee feedback sessions, and using AI for making unbiased performance assessments. Recognize such examples and address them proactively to create an equitable and fair workplace.
Now that you know the signs and how they affect the working environment, here we sum up effective solutions both employees and employers can adopt for taking a stand against favoritism at work.
Before taking any step, you must assess the situation as rationally as possible. Think of the situation where you feel favoritism peaked. Take all possible reasons for receiving treatment by the employee into consideration.
For instance, if the employee has interpersonal skills, relationship, or technical qualifications for influencing the leader to take such a drastic decision or action! Assessment will make you more confident regarding your next steps.
During such situations, speaking to a mentor is beneficial. Choose from those who are removed from such situations and present your rational assessment in front of them. They may somewhat agree, wholeheartedly agree, or flat out the assessment completely.
Despite their action, you must stay open to any constructive feedback coming your way. Insights offered by an impartial person are what you may need to deal with favoritism at work efficiently.
After finishing the above-mentioned steps, you have done your bit and due diligence. Now, it’s time to take a step ahead with the action plan, i.e., taking a stand for yourself! When you do make sure that evidence or examples are necessary as proof of favoritism, speak with clarity, and stay confident during convictions.
Of course, the job is not as simple at all as it sounds! However, if you commit to rooting off any behaviors or actions related to favoritism play even unconsciously you can make use of online tests and tools. Such solutions will let you look for unconscious biases that are dominating within the organization.
Suppose your company doesn’t show any favoritism sign but that never means you should not take precautions. To mitigate this toxic element from occurring then draft up the effective procedures.
Now ask the team to share their constructive feedback or input on this proposed procedure to strengthen it more making the employees feel invested and valued. At last support and buy-ins are necessary. It may be possible to deal with the actions and behaviors where other employees were feeling ‘playing favorites.’
When you are keen to cope with your unconscious biases or gain awareness of how your actions affect others, a leadership coach can help you in the best possible ways. They make use of real-world experience, qualifications, and training to work closely with you for a stipulated time period and navigate your ways of thinking.
They will offer feedback on different scenarios serving as a sounding board where you need to push up your critical thinking ability. As a result, you can think wisely to deal with such situations promoting fairness and equality.
Any organization can flourish or boom when the employees are valued and appreciated for their innovative contributions, despite biases or personal connections.
Favoritism in the workplace will surely jeopardize the trust and belief between employees and employers causing resentment, creating conflicts, and undermining collaboration. Favoritism is toxic and if your organization exhibits signs for favoritism then you and the employees are equally accountable to take a stand against that.
In this way, you can harness a culture of collaboration, opportunities, and success in the company. Also, you can build a workplace where equality and fairness loom, enriching the lives of contributing members.
It imposes substantial impacts on the employees resulting in decline in motivation, morale, and job satisfaction. As a result, it will build a divisive atmosphere within the teams hindering both communication and collaboration.
Not only degrades job satisfaction, morale, and motivation but it also contributes to increased burnout and stress, resulting in adverse effects on both physical and mental health. Even they experience certain challenges to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
It will promote less communication and collaboration amongst teams creating a toxic work ambiance influencing resentment and gossip. Moreover, this can impair team performance nurturing an ‘us vs. them’ mentality, and negatively affecting innovation, cooperation, and collective goal achievement.
Favoritism at work erodes fairness, trust, and employee engagement impacting overall organizational culture negatively. As a result, it declines employee trust, and perceived fairness with overall employee engagement, which in turn will hinder recruitment, retention, and overall organizational success.
It may not constitute discrimination but certainly promotes a type of unfair treatment towards discriminatory environments at work.
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