Can You Experience Workplace Discrimination While Working from Home?

The answer is yes. Working from home favors some people but not others. Reduced commuting has left some people with extra time, money, and a sense of freedom since there is no supervision. It is not a favor working from home for others due to inadequate space at home and juggling house chores with work.

Working from home has left many people vulnerable to discrimination. This is because working from home can change at any time; thus, employees' lives that were always private become suddenly public. Therefore, this can lead to discrimination based on religion, gender, disability, pregnancy, race, sexuality, and age.

Working from home has increased majorly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nothing has changed about discrimination despite many people working from home. 

Below are some ways employees can face discrimination while working from home.

Discrimination from Participating in Video Conferences

After Covid-19 struck, many companies had to develop ideas on how employees could do their job remotely. Video conferencing tools have become the in-thing for connecting with your coworkers virtually.

Giving the managers and colleagues a glance of your private world, messages, images, and the people around you in the background can lead to harassment, discrimination, and adverse treatment.

Retaliation After Reporting Unlawful Harassment

These cases are all over the world. Employees have the right to report any case of discrimination or harassment from their employers to any employment law firm. For example, in the US, employment law firm HKM protects the employees in all aspects of law employment.

Retaliation is doing something harmful to your employee for revenge purposes after they have probably reported an act of discrimination. Many cases of retaliation in workplaces occur quickly after employees have reported instances of discrimination to legal firms. This is a form of discrimination because an employee has the right to report any discrimination or ill-treatment by their employers. The employers should be apologetic but not fire out the employee in return.

Sending Discrimination Messages

Another potential way employees are discriminated against is through text messages and emails. Harassers have found a way of discriminating against their employees by sending them text messages and emails. This way has emboldened them because they do it without facing anyone in person.

Discriminating Working Women

Women, especially mothers working from home, have faced discrimination due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is due to their added role of looking after their children since schools closed and learning started being conducted remotely.

Mothers take care of their children and continue working, where some of these jobs are full-time jobs. Some employers cannot, in any way, understand the family responsibilities undertaken by the mothers, and you will find them discriminating against mothers in more ways than one. For instance, failing to promote mothers and treating them differently compared to their male colleagues is a form of discrimination.

To avoid these discriminations, employees and employers should take the following precautions:

• Employees should openly address the issue during video conferences like the zoom meetings. By this, everyone will be aware of the discrimination, and the employers will be afraid of retaliation. Employees can also report any discrimination cases to law firms to help them take the right action.
• Employers should not secretly send text messages or emails concerning work. The Human Resource Manager should be responsible for all communication in a company.
• Employers should ensure that they don't discriminate against women due to their family responsibilities. 

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