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A discriminatory role change is typically not the first early warning sign of discrimination, but it is often the first warning sign that makes you aware that there is an actual threat to your career. It’s normal to feel a bit off balance as you realize everything leading up to this point - your boss being more critical of you than others and overlooking you on key projects, the comments that didn’t feel right - all was clearly leading you to this point and you just didn’t see it. Even then, it’s also normal to not yet be ready to call it discrimination.
You’ll likely feel increased awareness and concern, but discrimination is a scary word to say out loud. Unfortunately this is also when you’re most likely to kick off a fight that you don’t even realize you’re starting. You’re just asking logical questions, raising concerns you have a right to raise and seeking help in an environment that you thought was safe. But the person who is discriminating, the person who doesn’t have answers for the questions you’re asking – they’re already ahead of you and they’re about to exploit that to protect themselves and simultaneously destroy everything you’ve worked for.
In this post we’ll explore what this may look like in the workplace, so you can recognize the discrimination for what it is early and take the steps necessary to protect your career.
The Role Change: It’s Similar, But It’s Not
You get a phone call or a meeting invite and suddenly you’re being told they’re moving you to a new role. You’re told not to worry, this isn’t a punishment and your salary isn’t changing, it’s just what the business needs. But if all that’s true, why do you feel like you just got punched in the gut? Then you’re told you are the only one whose role is changing, but there’s no good answer for why you. If you’re like me, they may even say they chose you because you’re great at your job. So great in fact, that you get pushed into a new role you don’t want without any say while your lower performing peers aren’t impacted.
If this role change involves less responsibility in the form of direct reports, responsibility, territory or any other metric it is covered under civil rights laws if you can demonstrate that you are experiencing disparate treatment because of a protected characteristic (gender, age, sexual orientation).
You may cry, you may ask questions, you may complain and then you may blindly walk into the battle of your career. And to be clear, you should escalate. We cover the reasons why in more detail in our Escalation is Crucial post, but essentially to get justice for the harm you experience, the company must be made aware and have a chance to step in.
Why am I warning you if I’m also recommending you take these steps? Because disparate treatment alone is often not enough to pursue discrimination charges against your employer as these cases pursue financial recovery. However, despite what your employer currently claims about this decision not being harmful to your career, it is not uncommon for that reduced responsibility to later be used to deny a promotion or terminate you when the role is no longer needed.
The truth is your work environment is likely about to become dangerous and toxic and you need to be prepared to document, capture and escalate. It’s harder to do that if you’re still doubting yourself. However, if you remain diligent and you begin documenting now, by the time they take the last step to outright discriminate in a way that harms your career, you will have the evidence you need to hold them accountable.
The Role Change: It’s A Step Backwards
In this scenario, you get a phone call or a meeting invite and you’re told that unrelated to your performance you’ve been singled out to be moved into a lower-level or different role that you didn’t request (e.g. people leader to IC, forced to change departments). Similar to the reduced responsibility role, you’re told it’s not a punishment, it’s just what the business needs and that they believe you’re the best fit to fill the gap. Your pay may be impacted or it may not, but either way, you see the change as a step backwards in your career progression.
Unlike the above situation, you may have what you need to pursue discrimination claims against your employer immediately, especially if your pay is impacted. However, similar to pursuing discrimination charges after termination, the burden of proving discrimination was a factor is on you. You need to capture the evidence and you need to escalate to HR or leadership to make them aware of your concerns and give them the opportunity to investigate and correct the situation. Just like with reduced responsibility, the company can’t be held accountable for discrimination if you never made the appropriate resource (leadership or HR) aware of what was going on.
Collect what evidence you can before going to HR and do your best to build a timeline that proves the discrimination you’ve been experiencing and you believe influenced this decision.
Fears Confirmed, Start Protecting Your Career Now
This is typically where I say an early warning sign of discrimination is not evidence enough of discrimination, but typically if you already had concerns about discrimination and then your responsibilities are reduced, you are right. I am going to repeat this again, because I know you need to hear it: YOU ARE MOST LIKELY RIGHT, IT IS DISCRIMINATION.
And like many members of JustiProof, we have no doubt that once you begin collecting evidence, compiling your timeline and can review everything that has happened in one place – if you are being discriminated against, any doubts you have will be eliminated.
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