Businesses sometimes need to make economic cuts, and one area they may do this is staffing. Laying off staff rarely goes down well, but sometimes it is the best option an employer has to keep the company running and keep other staff in their jobs.
Things like race, age, gender, religion or disabilities should not come into how employers select who will lose their jobs. Yet, they sometimes do, whether as a conscious decision or an unconscious one.
Look for patterns
If you lose your job, or fear you are about to, look at who else has suffered the same fate. Do the majority of you share certain similar “protected characteristics?” If so, it might be an indicator that discrimination is taking place.
If you were all the most recent hires, then it is likely your time with the company is why your employer has chosen you all to go first. But, if your only commonality is your protected characteristics there might be another explanation.
It’s not always straightforward
Working out whether or not something was discriminatory can be challenging at times and more straightforward at others. For example, if you overhear a conversation between managers saying the company is to focus on keeping the young talent and everyone over 60 then loses their job, ageism may be at play.
If, however, the company recently made efforts to improve diversity you might have a situation where most or all of the newer employees come from a different background to the old guard. If they were to lose their jobs, would it be because of their race or gender, or simply because they happened to be the last ones to join the company?
As you can see, if you believe you may have suffered discrimination, you may need outside help to get a truer picture of whether your suspicions are correct, and if so, examine your options.