Case Study: Workplace Discrimination and Effective Strategies to Handle It

Case study
Please read through the following case studies.  Reflect on your learning and your own research within this unit.  
Prepare a response that responds to each of the issues presented below.  Your responses must reflect your knowledge, skills, and application for this unit.  
Scenario 1
Danielle is the practice manager of a large dental practice in the city.  She is the only female staffer at management level.  The CEO often refers to her as the ‘office mum’ although no male manager is ever referred to as the ‘office dad’.  He also expects her to handle office birthdays and always asks her to organise coffee for their monthly managerial meetings.  Danielle is becoming really frustrated with these requests and the ‘office mum’ label.  She tells her CEO of her concerns, and he responds by telling her that she is being ‘overly sensitive’.
Do you believe that the CEO is displaying any sexist behaviour, or is Danielle being overly sensitive?  Outline your reasons for your response.
Outline at least three strategies that Danielle could use to curb this behaviour while still remaining respectful to her CEO and colleagues.
Case study
Please read through the following case studies.  Reflect on your learning and your own research within this unit.  
Prepare a response that responds to each of the issues presented below.  Your responses must reflect your knowledge, skills, and application for this unit.  
Scenario 1
Danielle is the practice manager of a large dental practice in the city.  She is the only female staffer at management level.  The CEO often refers to her as the ‘office mum’ although no male manager is ever referred to as the ‘office dad’.  He also expects her to handle office birthdays and always asks her to organise coffee for their monthly managerial meetings.  Danielle is becoming really frustrated with these requests and the ‘office mum’ label.  She tells her CEO of her concerns, and he responds by telling her that she is being ‘overly sensitive’.
Do you believe that the CEO is displaying any sexist behaviour, or is Danielle being overly sensitive?  Outline your reasons for your response.
Outline at least three strategies that Danielle could use to curb this behaviour while still remaining respectful to her CEO and colleagues.
Scenario 3
In the lunchroom at your workplace, a colleague is reading the paper.  After reading an article about increases in funding for health and housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they make a comment about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ‘expecting Government handouts’ and say that they ‘should stop living in the past’.  The person always prefaces these comments with “I’m not racist, but…”
You know that this is an opinion that this person has expressed before and that it seems to be deeply ingrained.  Nobody else seems to mind this behaviour, and you are also aware that a number of other colleagues also think this way to some degree even if they do not come out and say it very often.  Sometimes, the lunchroom discussions get quite heated, with people using derogatory terms when making comments about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
You are working in a situation where you and your colleagues are frequently dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  Indeed, there are some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working with you.  You notice that another colleague, whom you know to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, becomes upset and leaves the room.
•    How does this impact the way you carry out your work, both in working with your colleagues and in dealing with your customers?  Have any laws been broken?
•    What are some of the issues affecting this situation, and what are you able to tell the non-indigenous workers about issues affecting Indigenous Australians?
•    How would you respond to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person who left?

Scenario 1: Sexism in the Workplace

 Scenario 1

In the first scenario Danielle is the practice manager of a large dental practice in the city.  As she is the only female staff in the management level the CEO often calls her as the ‘office mum’. The CEO also expects her to get coffee for the monthly meetings and organize birthdays in office.

I am certain the CEO would not have given such names to male employees and therefore these are clear signs of sexism and that Danielle is not being ‘overly sensitive.’

Now there are a lot of ways to deal with workplace harassment. However, she has to keep in mind the fact that she cannot be overtly rude to the CEO or his other colleagues. Firstly, she has to learn to say no. It is inappropriate that only she is asked to make coffee arrangements in monthly meetings every time, but if she tells them she cannot do it any more by citing a few reasons like she has personal engagements, the office staff cannot force her to do it. This is often termed as the bad barista move [1].

Secondly, what she can do is to pretend she has not quite got the joke and ask the CEO to repeat. Repeating something sexist like calling a woman ‘office mum’ usually makes the person realize that he has been committing a mistake and he might not repeat it again.

Lastly, she can turn the tables on the CEO by asking with a sense of humour if he would refer to a male colleague as an ‘office dad’[2]. She might just even pop the question what the CEO would have done if she was a guy. These questions will be non threatening but Danielle’s point that she is being treated unfairly will stand.

Scenario 2

In the second scenario an employee constantly jokes on men being ‘bipolar’, ‘going postal’ or going ‘off their meds, I as the team leader know that another employee who is sitting within earshot of these comments is on medication for depression. Here’s how I can help the latter:

Firstly, the person cracking the joke can be interrupted early. Something like, ‘Hey! Let’s not  talk about this,’ can work wonders. The person cracking the joke might get the tone and change the topic. This is the most common way to stop a person from making bigotry comments[3].

If that does not stop him from doing it, maybe I would have to take the option of going up the management ladder and complaining. I might find a few people who think alike in upper management and ask them to help maintain the calm in

[1] Stamarski, Cailin S., and Leanne S. Son Hing. "Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism." Frontiers in psychology 6 (2015).

[2] Rutherford-Morrison, Lara. "8 Ways You Can Shut Down Sexism In The Workplace." Bustle.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Aug. 2017.

[3] "At Work." Teaching Tolerance. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Aug. 2017.