Is a lack of consideration for a promotion a problem?

One of your superiors quits at work. You hope to get promoted, but your boss quickly promotes another employee. Are you actually being discriminated against?

This can be a problem when there is no consideration for the position. For instance, your boss may have been watching a particular employee for a while, looking for a chance to promote them. When the other worker quit, your boss felt that it was the perfect opportunity and just executed the plan they already had in place.

That feels fine to them, but what if your boss is a man and he promoted another man, passing up you, a female worker, without a glance? You think you’re even more qualified for the job. Did your boss just want to promote this other worker for so long because he is biased in favor of men — or against women?

Or, perhaps your boss is white. The worker they promoted is also white. You, as an African-American worker, feel that you did not get fair consideration — or any at all. Is the truth that your boss favors other white workers or feels that African-American workers should not move that far up the corporate ladder?

When there is not a fair, transparent process for promoting workers where everyone gets consideration based on their merits, it opens the door for a lot of these questions. Those who do think they are being actively discriminated against need to know what legal steps they can take. This type of discrimination is illegal in the workplace and you do not deserve to be treated that way.