Dealing With Favoritism and Nepotism in the Workplace

Have you ever seen your Boss favoring a particular employee everywhere for no reason? Are you still not sure why your Boss has hired his uncle as the HR when he’s a software engineer actually? The answer to both of these questions can be given by single words. Favoritism and Nepotism, respectively.

In the workplace, everyone deserves a chance to build their positions based on merit, skills, and qualifications. This ensures that whoever makes it to a particular post is fit to perform the job well. However, favoritism and nepotism discriminate against the employees. It’s quite frustrating and dealing with them is also not easy. However, you can keep certain things in mind to make your time at the office easier, amidst both of these issues.

Tips to deal with Favoritism and Nepotism

Whether its nepotism, favoritism or a combination of both of the discriminations found at your workplace, the final effects are always the same. Favoritism and nepotism lead to unfair appointment and promotion of incompetent individuals that can cause resentment among potential employees. In the same way, it demotivates and demoralizes employees. They know that all of their efforts are futile as they can never receive the promotion or increment they worked hard for. This all eventually leads to the poor performance of the employees and thus ineffectual growth of the company.

This makes it ever so important to deal with both forms of discrimination, whether you are an employee or a manager.

1. Be sure of your skills and abilities

Those who are not sure of their skills and qualifications are easily affected by the smallest of the things. If you are appointed on a position based on your merits, you should already be confident of the skills that led you to it. Throughout your career, there will be numerous times when your position will be challenged. Although favoritism and nepotism might seem like a serious threat as their sole merit is to be likable to your recruiter. However, every company seeks for capable employees as well. What you’ll need is simply confidence in your work.

2. Be Professional

It’s your workplace, not a school where you can be grumpy, emotional and rigid about an issue. Regardless of what’s happening in the office, you should stay professional in every course of your actions. By acting immaturely, you can turn people against yourself. They will believe that you are spilling beans just because you couldn’t get the promotion or increment. Remember that favoritism and nepotism are itself acts of sheer unprofessionalism. Avoid lashing out, the urge to use harsh words on someone or gossiping with the co-workers. By raising above all the triviality, you will be better positioned to work, amidst these issues in your office.

3. Discuss the issue with a trusted superior

If you feel like the situation is going out of hands, the best way will be to discuss it with a senior. However, you will have to think thoroughly before doing anything like this. You might get fired the next day if you straight-up barge in the room of HR to discuss the issue. Most of the time, the HRs are responsible for unfair appointments and promotions. Therefore, try informing the problem to any trusted third-party having enough authority.

4. Be prepared for the backlash

If you decide to discuss the issue with anyone in the office, you should be prepared for the worst. You will welcome many unwanted inspections and issues in your work. While informing anything to someone superior, you should take a note of your performance. There will be chances that your own position might get challenged. You will have to make sure that your behavior and progress is above benchmarks.

In the same way, you can ask your close co-workers if they share the same thoughts as you. This will allow you to present witnesses in case needed. If you can, keep track of any dates of exchanges, dialogues, and policies of the company being breached. In the end, you will be better primed for any unwelcomed frivolities.

5. Get yourself out of the problem

Indeed, it is demotivating to see someone else being favored over you when you know how capable you are. However, it becomes tedious to overlook such petty issues during your work. There will be tens of different things in your office rather than these problems. Ask yourself if your position is being jeopardized by favoritism and nepotism. If yes, you should pay attention to the problem in a professional way. However, if the answer is no, you should simply let go of it. In the end, you can’t risk diminishing your performance and getting emotionally involved in an irrelevant matter.

6. Switch your job if the things go out of your hands

In case you find that things are simply not working out according to your liking, you should hand over your resignation letter without any second thoughts. Your career and intellectual growth shouldn’t be threatened by issues where someone else is favored despite their incompetence. And good companies make sure of that. However, this should be your last resort. Things get challenging everywhere, and you shouldn’t quit that easily.

The Final Takeaway

Whether it is favoritism or nepotism that has been introduced in your workplace, you should remember that it is quite a common issue. But you cannot let it affect your professional and private life. It takes perseverance, confidence, and strong-mindedness to deal with any challenges in the workplace. By focusing on what’s important and adopting the aforementioned strategies, you can make peace with these issues.

Anthony Anson is a Brand Manager at a leading IT company. He focuses on ensuring a productive relationship between the customers and the company. His expertise extends from writing on Business Management to work ethics and marketing strategies. He also provides essay writing help and resumes building tips to help potential employees land up at their dream jobs.