Work It Podcast: What to do if you are a victim of workplace discrimination

Workplace discrimination can be one of the thorniest issues to navigate because it isn't always clear cut.

Tiffany Ang and Gerald Tan sit down with Alvin Goh, executive director of the Singapore Human Resources Institute, to unpack the grey areas, and the steps to take when something happens.

Here's an excerpt from the podcast:

Tiffany Ang: 
You mentioned things that are very clear - the clear lines that we shouldn't cross. But what are some forms of not so clear types of discrimination (that) we sometimes see in a workplace?

Alvin Goh:
For example, your employee is having a hard day and getting ready to go off work. And you pile certain things on and say, "Oh, please get this done. And I need it by 5 (o'clock) or 6 (o'clock) today, right?"

You portray that it's a do-or-die type of document that needs to be processed and everything, and it's deliberately done. 

And I think that's the areas that we don't see very clearly, but it exists in the workplace ...

Tiffany:
Because the leader might go, "It's my job to delegate tasks, and I feel that you are the right person for the job." So then you can't even say, "That's discriminatory or like you are targeting me," right? Because it's a he-says she-says type of situation. 

Alvin:
So these are the areas that are extremely subjective. And as you clearly pointed out, "I say, you say", or somebody saw it kind of thing, and that's the element that we are trying to advocate for leaders especially, to be mindful of such behaviours and to refrain from such behaviours, especially in workplaces.

We know here in corporate Singapore, stress elements are pretty high. There's an element whereby today, a lot of us are caregivers at home. We are also sole breadwinners and so forth. So there are multiple areas where it stresses the employee out and (causes) workplace burnout.

Workplace well-being is a very important concept that we also need to take into the equation, right? And I do see my previous employers and even the work that SHRI does, there is always this micro-aggression, these micro-discriminatory behaviours that exist, and it's very hard, as you click on, to pinpoint "That's not right."