Employees certainly know that they shouldn’t be discriminated against in the workplace. There are numerous protected classes, such as race, sex, religion and disability – just to name a few. No one should have to face discrimination for a class that they are a part of, and all workers deserve equal treatment.
However, there are sometimes cases where discrimination is massively underreported. Stories may come out much later or one employee may tell their story and then suddenly numerous other employees will come forward with similar stories. People often ask why these people didn’t report the discrimination when it happened.
They thought they should have done something differently
There are many reasons, but one is just that employees sometimes think that they should have taken different steps or stopped the discrimination in some way. They don’t file a report because they think that they failed in that way, even though they certainly did not.
They don’t want to get fired
Perhaps the most common reason is that they just don’t want to lose their job. It is illegal for an employer to fire someone for making a report, but that employer may still do so or the employee may be worried about losing their only source of income.
They don’t think anyone will believe them
Unfortunately, many employees also worry about being believed in the first place. They think that the other party will just deny it, that there won’t be enough evidence, and that they’ll then have a negative reputation that they would rather avoid.
If you’re facing discrimination, please know that you can make a report and that you do have legal options. No one deserves this treatment, and you need to know what steps to take to obtain some measure of justice and compensation for your losses.