Employee Favoritism
Favoritism is a Fast Track to Employee Resentment
If there is anything that all employees can usually agree upon, it is that favoritism drives them all crazy. It is easy to explain this resentment toward favoritism, since it makes every person - no how dedicated to their work they may happen to be - feel as though no matter how hard they work, it doesn't matter. Instead of thinking that you can work hard until you make your way to the top, favoritism says that it's all who you know, not what you do.
Therefore, it follows that a workplace that allows favoritism will also be victim to decreased moral, which leads to decreased productivity, as employees each develop a "why bother" way of thinking.
Even if favoritism resides only within a single person, or a small group of people, it has the same impact as if the company's entire human resources program was based on favoritism as a mission. For this reason, it is extremely important for management to keep on top of the situation so that any favoritism can be quickly detected and resolved before it gets out of hand. To accomplish this, a very attentive management group must be willing to carefully go over every element of the existing employee development policies and procedures.
If you are wondering if your company may be a victim of favoritism, there are a few questions that you need to ask yourself. If you answer "yes" to any of the following questions, then you should consider taking further steps toward the management of favoritism in your workplace.
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# Is it possible for an employee to "fast track" their way into a promotion, either unofficially, or through an actual fast tracking program?
# Does anything happen "behind closed doors" regarding the identification of employees for different development programs?
# If there are two employees with the same abilities and job performance level, except that one is in a fast track program, and the other is not, will the fast track employee be promoted first? No matter the job performance, have there ever been employees who have been identified as not being candidates for promotion?
# Are any of the employees within the employee development program provided with better or more interesting tasks than others, even if there are other employees who would be better qualified to complete these tasks?
Answering "yes" to any one of these questions could bring up a red flag in your mind. However, if you have answered "yes" to two or more of these questions, then you should seriously consider an in depth analysis of the ways in which your business functions, as you are running the risk of frustrating your employees, and not being able to reach your full potential. Frustrated and unhappy employees are one of the fastest paths to business failure. Just the same, removing favoritism from your business is one of the best ways to make your employees feel valuable, and encourage them to work their best.
http://www.anonymousemployee.com/csssite/sidelinks/employee_favoritism.php
Dear Heero,
What you have described is a universal and a brutal truth if I may say. There are very few companies who are world class and it is impossible for everyone to get a job over there.
But this dirty politics in the disguise of favouritism is like a plague that has been eating this society and pushing the hardworking, brilliant and deserving people towards frustration.
That is why if you take a survey there are many people who are either doing a small business or doing a freelance assignments and earning much more than their monthly income if they were an employee) + the golden freedom of time. In Qatar itself I have friends who are too qualified and brilliant, but they are on their own rather taking up a full time job.
In fact for everyone's information I would like to share here that one of my friend was working in a company - (place, country withheld due to confidentiality) and he was the next to the owner. He was asked to Manage the office operations which he did so well exceeding the expectations of the management. He formulated rules and regulations, which were followed and respected by everyone except one person. That staff never used to come to the office on time and most of the time stayed at home with an excuse that all the work will be done from hishome and will not show the face for months and months but will come only once to take full salary regularly. It was setting a bad example and retaliation from other staff, my friend questioned the owner, he replied that he is getting benefit from the staff so no rules and regulations will be applied to him but only to the rest.
Later on he found out that this staff was doing a lot of freelance jobs from home and getting paid which was shared between these two (owner+staff), the reason was the owner did not want to show the actual profit to the sponsor so that he can pay a proportionately less % from the profit. When my friend confronted the owner on behalf of every staff, he played dirty tricks on him, because of which my friend just walked away. Owner did not give any salary, on the top of it he also put his photograph in the newspaper that he has been terminated, whereas my friend was not under company visa nor his work permit was processed at that time and he did not not even receive a formal offer letter.
The owner was the biggest thief and fraud because the company which he was running, he set up that when he was already an employee of another company which is into same business. He stole the money from there and invested here and continued running this when he was still an employee of that company. Not only that this fraud through the help of some another set of ungrateful frauds from his employer's company linked his server to theirs, so that he can steal all the enquiries coming thru email from there and convert them into business and he is still continuing that because the staff of previous employer are helping him. They pass on all the leads and official proposals to him, also give him complete to access to their company's email ids so that he can check directly the emails coming there. Most of his business deals closed is in this way. The most disgusting practice in this company is he does not like to pay back to the suppliers for the goods purchased, to avoid that he advised one of his lady staff who is single and hired from philippines, that whoever is asking money, please use your charm and do whatever they ask you to do. That lady happily does it and gets rewarded.
The most disgusting, unethical company that I witnessed through my friend.
You can say this was one of the live example of favouritism alias dirty politics. The reason I shared this because may be there are good companies around whose management is honest but unfortunately they have given the right power in the wrong hands and also to those aspiring and hard working employees who can voice their opinion if they are facing such similar situations and/or victim of dirty politics in any way.
Regards,
Laksh65
Managers who practice favoritism in their employees are not professional, they are just experienced. They will never admit it, it will not be noticed sometimes, they will just try to justify their actions, and use their influences...
Favoritism can be either of the following:
1. Manager & Employee are beneficial to each.
2. Employee alone is benefited from the Manager.
3. Manager alone is benefited from the employee.
Favoritism can cause:
1. Rumors
2. Jealousy from other employees
3. Protest, confusion & distrust on the evaluation system.
4. Disturbance at work.
5. Opportunity for the favorite employee though constant anxiety & shame takes place.
the more you perform the more people like you..
Favoritism is always there...even you yourself feels it to somebody...somehow...
" Tomorrow is not just another day, it's another chance..."
well favoritism is one of life's reality!
although career advancement usually depends on how well you perform, this sometimes happens in the workplace. and i guess there's nothing you can do about it. my former boss, for example, recommended promotion for my colleague, who happens to be his 'secret' lover. It's sad that those who are more deserving are disregarded due to people using their power for own personal interest. it's what we call 'politics' in the workplace, you know.
"I am not a native English speaker. So don't mock me for my grammar mistakes."
- anonymous