Favoritism in the workplace

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in hearing stories where people have encountered unmerited favoritism in the workplace, situations where one employee clearly is favored by a manager, even though that employee doesn't necessarily contribute more or go above and beyond. I'm interested in hearing how this impacted the office as a whole and if/how it was ever mitigated.

TIA.

[Anonymous]

Rn in hospital, charge RNs definitely play favorites, nothing has been done. 2nd career. Do not enjoy this aspect of the field.

[Anonymous]

I work in a school and a relatively new teacher has befriended the principal. As in, they hang out outside of school and then the teacher posts it on FB and tags principal. Totally their prerogative to form a friendship , but new teacher has been given the best classroom and has also been afforded various other "perks" that other teachers have previously been reprimanded for. It has created a dysfunctional work environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school and a relatively new teacher has befriended the principal. As in, they hang out outside of school and then the teacher posts it on FB and tags principal. Totally their prerogative to form a friendship , but new teacher has been given the best classroom and has also been afforded various other "perks" that other teachers have previously been reprimanded for. It has created a dysfunctional work environment.

Thank you for this. This is my thought as well.

[Anonymous]

I worked for a family owned and run company. Enough said. Never again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked for a family owned and run company. Enough said. Never again.

Thats what I'm in now. One other family member with a similar job position as me is double what I am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school and a relatively new teacher has befriended the principal. As in, they hang out outside of school and then the teacher posts it on FB and tags principal. Totally their prerogative to form a friendship , but new teacher has been given the best classroom and has also been afforded various other "perks" that other teachers have previously been reprimanded for. It has created a dysfunctional work environment.

Thank you for this. This is my thought as well.

Duh. Favoritism breeds dysfunction in any environment... did you start this topic to lead us to this earth-shattering conclusion?
The issue for non-favorites in the office/family is how to deal with the situation. We can talk about this.

[Anonymous]

My current boss plays favorites hard. When I first joined the team, she hated me. After a few months, I became the favorite. For the last year, the favorite is someone else and I'm not back to being hated but definitely no longer adored.

When I was the favorite, I knew it wasn't a fair dynamic to the rest of the team and that I didn't deserve it but I was just so glad to no longer be hated that I just went with it. Now that someone else is the favorite, I can appreciate just how much it sucks for the non-favorites on the team.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think the question is rather are there any offices where there aren't favorites? My office is very dysfunctional. The people who have no experience on an issue are included in a meeting and the ones with experience are excluded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school and a relatively new teacher has befriended the principal. As in, they hang out outside of school and then the teacher posts it on FB and tags principal. Totally their prerogative to form a friendship , but new teacher has been given the best classroom and has also been afforded various other "perks" that other teachers have previously been reprimanded for. It has created a dysfunctional work environment.

Thank you for this. This is my thought as well.

Duh. Favoritism breeds dysfunction in any environment... did you start this topic to lead us to this earth-shattering conclusion?
The issue for non-favorites in the office/family is how to deal with the situation. We can talk about this.

Believe it or not, there are some people who think favoritism is perfectly okay and part of how the work world works. They don't see it as an issue at all. So before we can talk about how to deal with it, I wanted to at least get some confirmation that other people do in fact see it as an issue that not only isn't good for the non-favorites but also isn't good for the workplace.

But I did ask for people's experiences (and that includes what happened/how they dealt, no matter what side of it they were on).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think the question is rather are there any offices where there aren't favorites? My office is very dysfunctional. The people who have no experience on an issue are included in a meeting and the ones with experience are excluded.

Well, yeah, definitely I'm interested to hear about places where there is an active effort on the part of the company/org to discourage favoritism. I think favoritism is sort of a natural thing that happens in group dynamics, but it is toxic for the workplace. And I think it affects productivity.

So does anyone have examples of ways the company discouraged favoritism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked for a family owned and run company. Enough said. Never again.

Thats what I'm in now. One other family member with a similar job position as me is double what I am.

New poster here. I would run. Are the family members of equal responsibility? The business example I mention had the family underdog as the owner, and the abusive sibling as (reluctant) admin. Bad all around. A new company had to come in and get rid of the dead wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think the question is rather are there any offices where there aren't favorites? My office is very dysfunctional. The people who have no experience on an issue are included in a meeting and the ones with experience are excluded.

Well, yeah, definitely I'm interested to hear about places where there is an active effort on the part of the company/org to discourage favoritism. I think favoritism is sort of a natural thing that happens in group dynamics, but it is toxic for the workplace. And I think it affects productivity.

So does anyone have examples of ways the company discouraged favoritism?

The companies I can think of have matrixed management structures, so no one manager can exert too much positive or negative influence on a person's career. So if your resource manager thinks you're the best thing ever but your work doesn't show it, the project managers' feedback can counteract that and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Some of the worst environments for favoritism are huge old companies and organizations. I've read that a ridiculously high percentage of generals/admirals are blood relatives of former generals/admirals. And I work for a big company (not a family company by any means) where the same is true about company executives.

[Anonymous]

Federal agency. Slightly attractive women get special treatment.