Favoritism in the workplace: How to identify and prevent it
It stinks watching someone else get preferential treatment at work just because a higher-up likes them more. Hopefully, you’ve never experienced unfair treatment, but if you have, you know how discouraging it feels.
Workplace favoritism is an ugly plague that causes low morale and high turnover while fostering a quietly hostile, combative work environment.
Favoritism is bad. It crosses a professional line by valuing an employee’s traits more than their contributions to the company. It is unethical and possibly illegal and destroys your employees’ long-term commitment to the company.
Managers and HR teams must understand how to spot signs of favoritism and stop it before the ripple effect damages the entire team. Let’s discuss how.
What is favoritism in the workplace?
Not all employees are created equal. Some people get more work done, show more enthusiasm, treat others better, be better organized, and embody the traits of a good leader. These are all great reasons to hire or promote that person.
What’s not okay is giving preferential treatment to an employee based on personal feelings or relationships rather than because of their job performance.
Favoritism sees favored employees get better treatment through perks such as:
- Fewer consequences for their mistakes
- Greater leniency for tardiness or absences
- Less time spent on grunt work their coworkers have to do
- Extra help and attention on projects
- More opportunities for promotions
- Exclusive invitations to interface/hang out with senior leadership
Favoritism doesn’t just lead to higher turnover rates, either—there are legal risks that come with letting personal bias get in the way of fair hiring and promotion practices. Your company could be sued for:
- Illegal discrimination
- Sexual harassment
- Retaliation
Dating or being friends with a VP does not make someone a good candidate for promotion. To address favoritism, you may have to establish tough boundaries that could affect your relationships.
How favoritism makes work unfair
Let’s pretend you’re a talented employee who constantly produces good work. For some reason, you always get passed over for promotion in favor of your boss’s golf buddy. Does that make you eager to work harder? Probably not.
When skills and effort matter less than who you know, toxic work environments emerge that can lead to:
- Decreased teamwork from employees competing for attention
- Increased burnout among non-favored employees
- A culture of nepotism where connections matter more than competence
- Reduced collaboration as employees hoard information to gain an edge
- Increased stress and anxiety
- A sense of helplessness about one’s career path
The impact of favoritism extends beyond the workplace too. Employees who feel unfairly treated may experience the following:
- Lower self-esteem and confidence
- Increased stress that affects their personal lives and relationships
- Financial stress if their salary or job security is impacted
- Fewer opportunities for career growth
Favoritism sets a vicious cycle of an “every man for himself” culture in motion. Whether employees quit or burn out first, how to best serve the company becomes the furthest thing from their minds.
How modern work environments contribute to favoritism
Favoritism doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Most people know it’s not ethical or lawful to give someone preferential treatment because of who they know, but outside factors can sometimes make people act irrationally.
Volatile job market means fewer experienced employees
Employee turnover is higher than ever. One LinkedIn article says that Millennials aged 24-35 change jobs on average every 2.8 years—a high churn rate by any metric.
The fear of losing institutional knowledge can scare managers into using favoritism to keep veteran team members from leaving. They may give employees special treatment or perks (like a company car) that create an uneven playing field and a toxic workplace.
Emotional responses to critical feedback
Social media—TikTok in particular—has given young people a language for addressing conflict. The language may not always be precise or even accurate, but it has opened up a larger conversation. The term neurotypical, for example, has helped many people identify the kinds of accommodations they need at work.
But there’s more.
Social media also teaches young workers about fair workplace practices, often unapologetically. If young people spot an infraction at work, they are likelier to report it and take action.
Naturally, some managers bristle at this change, possibly out of loyalty to bygone Mad Men-esque pecking orders they had to navigate early in their careers. This can lead to favoring employees for their agreeable politics rather than hard work.
Unrealistic work standards favor busybodies
Sad but true: Many workplaces today value busyness over productivity. Someone who works long hours may be treated more favorably than someone who leaves on time, even though their output may be the same.
Workplace cultures that value high visibility over work don’t get better results—they get tired, burnt-out employees.
Combating favoritism
Let’s face it: We’re all human, and human nature isn’t likely to let us eradicate favoritism. But while it may be a natural tendency, that’s not an excuse to permit it. Companies can combat favoritism by focusing on hiring and promotion policies preventing it.
Where do most new hires and promotions come from?
Are all your new hires personal referrals? Do promotions go mainly to people with close relationships with management?
Any overreliance on personal connections will lead to a lack of diversity and help perpetuate favoritism. Some companies use blind hiring practices or standardized evaluation templates to reduce bias.
Give credit where it’s due
Favoritism in the workplace can deprive employees of recognition for their contributions. Managers can help prevent this by using recognition apps like Nectar or Achievers, designed to give every person the appreciation they deserve.
Keeping a small Slack channel works too. A “shout-out” room is an easy way to let people praise coworkers who pitched in to get something across the finish line.
And, of course, performance reviews should be used to let employees know where they are succeeding.
Confront toxic employees
Cultures with favoritism create toxic coworkers for your employees. These people always find their way into other peoples’ business, usually to slip in a bit of gossip, damage reputations, and gain an advantage.
Dealing with toxic employees is always challenging. Managers must document their behavior and model appropriate conduct, both of which feel icky. The best approach is to show how gossip and dog-eat-dog shortsightedness sacrifice long-term business success for short-term gains.
Policies that prevent favoritism in the workplace
Favoritism can be challenging to detect. Most of us have favorites and people we dislike for no particular reason. It doesn’t always make sense, but effective policies can help prevent those personal biases from creating a hostile work culture.
Clear performance criteria
People should know precisely what satisfactory work looks like if they want to move on and up from their current role. Do you need a minimum of two years’ employment before becoming a manager? Great, but make sure it’s clear and equitably enforced throughout all company levels (including management).
Advancement should hinge on specific, measurable criteria, such as performance metrics, skills development, and leadership capabilities.
Regular feedback and recognition
Be sure to recognize exemplary performance in as many different employees as possible. Doing so will help avoid accusations of favoritism.
Managers should also initiate continuous feedback with their employees beyond the annual review. This can include weekly or monthly check-ins or even a digital platform where employees can give and receive feedback anytime.
Transparent decision-making
When essential decisions arise, clarify the rationale behind them. Share the criteria you used when selecting a project lead. Explain why specific teams are receiving additional resources. Simply talking about it is often enough to help people understand why someone else was chosen for the job.
Unconscious bias training
Some companies take a holistic approach by training leaders to recognize their own biases and actively mitigate them. Unconscious bias training can help companies become more socially conscious, improving their reputation in the community.
Training should include practical exercises with real-world applications and some follow-up.
Less focus on the cultural fit
Favoring socially adept employees can isolate less chatty employees, create cliques in the workplace, and reduce diversity among leadership. Social skills are excellent, of course, but they are merely one of the numerous traits that make up a good employee.
The “culture fit” concept is primarily subjective, which makes it ripe for instances of favoritism. Try not to lean on it too much.
Cross-department mentorship
Sometimes, the best way to prevent favoritism is to build more relationships. Cross-department mentorships pair employees from different departments to broaden each other’s perspectives and limit favoritism within a single team.
The future of workplace fairness
TikTok is just one of the ways that younger generations learn about workplace fairness—they have also seen massive changes in gig work, job stability, economic inflation, and more, all of which influence how they interact with their jobs. Creating a fair work environment means learning to accept and work with these differences.
Factors that could change perceptions of fairness down the road might include:
- AI in decision-making: Many companies are using AI tools to help remove personal bias from hiring and promotion decisions.
- More remote work: Although remote workers tend to be viewed less favorably than their on-site counterparts, remote work has become the norm. How do we adapt?
- Transparency trends: Transparent reporting of hiring and promotion metrics is becoming standard across all businesses. When done right, it can help reduce the impact of favoritism.
Workplace fairness isn’t just for PowerPoints anymore—it’s water cooler chat. More and more people are comfortable sharing salary information, dishing the dirt on creepy coworkers, and questioning the meteoric rise of the VP’s new girlfriend. Get on their level by being proactive against favoritism.
More Resources:
Common ethical issues in the workplace
Honesty at work: Why it’s important and what it looks like
Workplace etiquette: The ultimate guide to professionalism