Throughout my career, I have always been a firm supporter of gender equality in the workplace. That’s why I was so disappointed to discover a female sales manager in her 40s seemed to be biased against female employees.
The manager had been in her position for several years and had a long history of good performance.
However, she seemed to treat her only young male subordinate well, while being much harsher towards the other female employees.
At first, I thought maybe it was just a personality clash, or perhaps the younger man was more competent or better-liked by the manager. But as time went on, it became clear that the manager was treating the only male subordinate differently than she was the other female employees.
For example, she would give him more responsibilities and more opportunities to advance, while the other female employees were given more mundane tasks and fewer chances to prove themselves.
She also seemed to be more lenient when it came to deadlines while holding the other female employees to a higher standard.
When I brought up my concerns to the manager, she brushed them off and said that the other female employees just needed to work harder.
But it was clear that she was favouring the only male subordinate.
I had seen this kind of bias before and it angered me. It was clear that the manager was judging the female employees based on their gender, rather than the quality of their work.
I decided to speak to the other female employees to see if they had noticed the same bias. As it turned out, they had and had been feeling very frustrated and undervalued.
We decided to confront the manager as a group and explain how her behaviour was unfair. We pointed out that she was showing favouritism to the only male subordinate and that it was having a detrimental effect on our morale and productivity.
The manager listened to us and eventually agreed to be more fair and equal in her treatment of all of her subordinates.
But no changes…