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Diversity and inclusion in the workplace are not longer a fancy trend. So if you’re feeling excluded at work it could probably be a good time for a change. 

 

Diversity and inclusion are important factors of company culture.

A common belief among people is that the best motivation to work is money. Without a doubt, this is a large part of the comfort of work, and one of its goals is to obtain a financial form of appreciation for our efforts. However, it is not only money that contributes to well-being in the workplace. Inclusive and diverse culture, relationships with people around us, clients, superiors, bosses, and co-workers with whom we create a team have a huge impact on our feeling of being accepted, respected, and satisfied with our work.

Find out more about how diversity and inclusion matters.

 

Much is said about the phenomenon of the so-called “Mobbing” or being a victim of usually verbal aggression on the part of superiors or colleagues. But why do we hear so little about a derivative phenomenon that takes the form of passive aggression, namely “ostracism at work”?

 

Ostracism and exclusion are equally harmful to our emotional and mental health as mobbing.

 

In a world that is slowly opening up to accepting various forms of otherness, whether ethnic, religious or sexual, we still cannot always expect respect and kindness for belonging to any minority. Not being a victim of mobbing is not enough to be satisfied with the working conditions.

Ostracism manifests itself more easily than mobbing, but it is still the cause of depression, social and emotional problems, and has enormous consequences on the development of our internal behavioral patterns. Everyone, regardless of their origin, religion, views, personality specificity or sexual orientation, deserves respect and a sense of belonging to the group in which they work. That’s why diversity and inclusion become one of the most important factors of work culture.

 

Diversity and inclusion matters.

Inclusion initiatives in inclusive companies let people embrace diversity and emphatic leadership. No co-worker or employer can make us feel left out on certain matters just because of whether we are older or younger, or perhaps of different backgrounds.

 

Diversity statistics acknowledge employee resource groups that a diverse workforce provides a bigger commitment and more profits in business.

 

The report highlights how diversity policies give job seekers a space for their best selves and create an organization of new ideas and benefits. Diverse different groups of talented people, employees treated fairly is a key to improving diversity inclusion efforts and employee engagement. Letting people’s differences lead the business to make it more creative and provide the above-average profitability.

diverse women

Inclusive culture and diverse workplace builds culture of openness and understanding. 

 

Nevertheless, discrimination at work is still present and, in addition to the above-mentioned factors, also applies to employees working on a non-full-time basis or on a different contract. Employees are most often discriminated against because of their age and gender. By joining the team, everyone is equal and should be treated equally. So why does it still happen that people cannot afford each other’s forbearance? Tolerance in recent years, when a lot has been said about the fight for LGBT + rights, seems to have changed its meaning. Gender diverse companies create an inclusive workplace for people who get equal access to business goals and challenges of leadership. Many organizations nowadays give new perspectives of the future by using the full potential of best talent inclusion and diversity.

A tolerant person is not only one who respects the rights of people with a sexual orientation different from their own. Tolerance is openness, honesty, respect and understanding towards otherness. Any other thing. Since each of us is different, everyone requires tolerance towards each other, so why is it not always possible to obtain it? Does a white, Catholic man require tolerance? We should consider what this word really means and why it is so hard to find.

 

Looking for a job in diverse and inclusive company? Find out our Jobs with values list.

Discrimination is a term that describes a situation in which an affected person is treated worse than another person in the same situation.

 

There are many levels of discrimination, although they usually relate to gender, age, race, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, belief, worldview, disability, age, appearance, personality specificity, or sexual orientation. Of the discriminatory levels closely related to the workplace, the following are also common: political beliefs and the type of employment contract.

 

Incorrect division of duties, unequal treatment, and unjustified reduction in the amount of remuneration. Discrimination at work can come in many ways. Internal anti-discrimination procedures, awareness of employees’ rights, and openness to communication – are factors that help to prevent and counteract negative phenomena.

 

The concepts of discrimination, mobbing, and ostracism are similar.

 

What they have in common is a sense of abandonment, being stripped of dignity, and being excluded to a greater or lesser extent. The human psyche reacts worse to ignoring, passive aggression, and exclusion than to an open quarrel or an open conflict. This is the result of leaving room for our imaginations to operate. When we leave room for guesswork, the problems get bigger, our imagination gallops, exaggerates them, and finally grows bigger than us. This is what happens to the psyche of a person who becomes a victim of ostracism. Theoretically and officially, it is not attacked, so there is nothing to defend against, and the enemy has no specific shapes. Fear and a sense of helplessness and hopelessness increase, leading us to gradually doubt our own value, competence, authority, identity, and finally mark us with signs of neurosis, depression or anxiety, permanently damaging our mental health and self-esteem.

 

Chronic stress caused by discrimination, mobbing and ostracism translates directly into a number of clinical diseases, such as cancer and heart attacks.

 

In addition to health hazards, a victim of any form of aggression in the workplace is more likely to experience family problems. Spending an average of 8 hours a day in an atmosphere of discomfort, abandonment, stress and loneliness, when we return home, we vent our emotions throughout the day, which helps us relieve our family members.

The statistics clearly show that divorces and separations are recorded much more often in cases of people affected by a form of aggression in the workplace. Often the seemingly small scale of the threat and innocent signs of dislike do not constitute evidence of ostracism, mobbing or discrimination, and this type of problem is difficult to solve.

People motivated to work by their life situation, responsibility for maintaining the family, paying off the loan and financial obligations at all costs try to keep their jobs, survive hard times and still manage. Doubt about our own value, intelligence and skills, however, deepens, which makes our work lose its effectiveness, the results deteriorate, the superiors are dissatisfied with the fruits of our work, and we find confirmation of depressive thoughts. In this way, the circle closes, leaving our psyche marked with some kind of trauma.

These disturbances of the emotional harmony of the mobbed person may result in a permanent feeling of sadness, a sense of the pointlessness of one’s own work, and the hopelessness of efforts to improve one’s own fate. Further consequences of the described conditions are already subject to medical qualification: sleep disorders, problems with concentration and memory, anxiety, depression, neuroses – these are disease states, the diagnosis and treatment of which is within the competence of psychiatrists.

According to doctors, the symptoms are irreversible and can be compared to the psychological traumas and disturbances in contacts with people, shown by soldiers who returned from the Vietnam War. Drastic mobbing can lead to suicidal thoughts and attempts. Based on the conducted research, it was estimated that 20% of suicides committed in Spain were provoked by psychological violence in the workplace.

 

Research shows that a large percentage of the unemployed are people affected by discrimination, so this is a confirmation of immediate danger and dependence. The above threat in the form of verbal aggression, oppression, abandonment or exclusion in the workplace leads to the question – How to deal with it, or rather how to avoid it?

It is assumed that as many as 3/4 of employees who have experienced mobbing do not find a job in the next year after leaving the job.

 

At the same time, only about 4% of those who decide to go to court receive decisions that are favorable to them. This is the result of unfriendly procedures and procedural rules. Many employees would not have to quit their jobs at all or go to court if companies had effective anti-mobbing and anti-discrimination policies in place.

 

We are lucky that in the times of rush, the eternal race after the result and the competition of ambition in the realities of capitalism, the environmental awareness of the threats posed by the above-mentioned is growing. One of them is frustration, stress and unhealthy competition which increase the likelihood of toxic behavior, causing harm to yourself and people around you.

In the 21st century, the tendency of companies to create warm, open work environments, guided by the principles of work-life balance, mindfulness, being attentive to their own and colleagues’ condition, but most importantly, the principle of “embrace one another’s uniqueness”.

In Europe alone, taking action to promote gender equality could create up to 10.5 million new jobs by 2050. Not including jobs, for other groups affected by discrimination, or for all kinds of minorities.

However, the list of world-class brands that have implemented the principle of “embrace one another’s uniqueness” is extremely long and includes almost all major corporations around the planet. Levi’s, Coca-Cola, Apple, Google, Netflix, Zalando, Subaru, Spotify, Tinder, Twitter, YouTube, Disney, Dr. Martens, MasterCard, Android, Nike, Converse, RedBull, Tom & Jerry’s, Visa are just a few of them. These are companies that loudly proclaim support for minorities, taking part, among others, in the so-called “Pride month” and changing the colors of your logo to rainbow. Thus, they promote equality, regardless of gender identity, or orientation, but also other areas on which discrimination is allowed. They create new jobs, are socially active and give the green light to the broadly understood otherness.

Brands and businesses are increasingly paying attention to indicators related to equality and diversity in the workplace. Thanks to the results of many surveys conducted around the world, we know that for two-thirds of millenials it is important that employers follow the principles of corporate social responsibility.

Learn how to build diverse workplace.

 

An increasing number of young people also believe that companies have a moral obligation to provide employees with decent working conditions and development, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, nationality or disability.

 

A good example of this type of action on the political and social level is one of the advertisements of the Pantene company. In the advertising spot, a girl can feel fully herself, because her desire to take care of long hair – a symbol of femininity, is accepted not only by the advertising side of her mother, but also by the brand itself. Such activities confirm that minorities do not have to agree to a workplace or a company that is not able to provide them with decent working conditions and mental comfort.

diverse women

Diversity and inclusion in workplace matters. Market research conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute showed that diverse companies employing employees of many nationalities enjoy 35 percent greater productivity than businesses with more homogeneous workforce.

 

Businesses with greater diversity are more effective at attracting talent, better engaging with customers, having greater employee satisfaction, and better decision-making.

 

All of this ultimately leads to increased profits and job satisfaction among employees. The Open for Business coalition points out that companies open to LGBT + employees cope better on the market and create greater brand attractiveness. Research also shows that people with disabilities are not less productive, but tend to stay longer in one job, have fewer absences and are less likely to be injured in the workplace. Many enterprises recognize that it is profitable and effective to employ people with disabilities and develop their skills.

It is an influencing trend that is gaining popularity, which consists in adopting a policy of acceptance and tolerance by companies in the aspect of being open to a broadly understood otherness. On the Internet you can find many interviews with people suffering from discrimination in the past, who talk about their experiences, traumas and the happy way out of oppression, which turned out to be a change of workplace, to one that respects their otherness, and even prides itself on the diversity of employees.

This is a phenomenon that is also very lucrative for the very image of this type of company. It leads to a warming of their image in social media and encourages potential new employees to submit an application in a place that will appreciate them, and it will define differences as uniqueness, turning it into the greatest advantage. Appropriate research is highly recommended in your job search. It allows you to understand the needs of the market, but also to adjust our priorities to the needs of the company and our potential employees.

Equal treatment of the team also applies to the conditions under which we will be employed. Remuneration, type of contract or position are also factors that contribute to our feeling that we are treated with dignity, that our work is treated with respect and our skills are valued. In addition, the opportunities that the company offers us in the form of promotion, courses, training or integration trips are also components of our well-being, which we deserve as a dedicated employee.