PBI1082

ENGLISH FOR OCCUPATIONAL PURPOSES

ASSESSMENT 1:
Critical Response

Name Siti Humairah Binti Shabri

Matric No 65210
Date of Submission 12/03/2020
Lecturer Sir Faidz Felani Majeri
Critical Response

Ethnic minority group experience higher level of work stress

Diversity in general can be defined as the situation of having things or people being included in
something of different element. While in term of workplace, diversity means people of different
gender, racial and ethnicity, generation gap, sexual orientation, language and religion working together
in a team in order to achieve goals and missions. These days, companies emphasize more on diversity
and inclusion practices in order to increase creativity, gain different perspectives and idea and also
increase company reputation. Despite all of this, some companies still having the practice on being
prejudice and stereotypes towards minority groups of different race or ethnic. According to an article
by John Hobson entitled ‘Occupational Medicine’, it is suggested that minority workers experience
higher work stress rather than that of majority workers. An interview was conducted to determine the
levels of work stress in three ethnic groups, the black African-Carribean, Bangladeshie and white
working people. It is reported that more black African-Carribean experienced high work stress than
Bangladeshi and white people. I will state my point by agreeing with the article by focusing on two
reasons why such situation happen which are low educational level and poor health care.

First and foremost, low educational level is one of the reasons why minorities experience racism
and getting work stress at workplace. Low educational level refer to an individual who are not
educated and having a little formal schooling. “Pew Research Center” (2016) reported that black adults
who pursued higher education at the college are more likely being treated with suspicion as if they
were not smart than for those who did not because of their race and ethnicity. These group were
criticized with term ‘underachiever’ by the majorities. Underachiever means a small-scale group of
students or learners who were lacking of motivation, potential and skills. Despite that, it tends to help
certain individuals and groups to develop towards an improved performance. Low educational level
may occur from school where the teachers have poor leadership on equality issues and have low
expectation towards their own students especially students of different race and ethnicity (Demie &
McLean, 2017). These expectations causes the minority students being differentiate by their own
teachers where the teachers change their behaviour towards certain students. For instance, teachers
give less positive feedback, fail to give opportunity for minority students to answer or give less time
for them to answer questions. If these actions are done continuously, it will give a negative impact
towards students’ performance and their self-esteem. Hence, it is clear that minority group tend to gain
more work stress because of negative perception by the majority group on minorities education level.

Furthermore, health issues also causes the minorities to experience racial discrimination. Carollo
(2011) stated that black people are more likely having poorer health than that of white people and
Lowth (2015) also reported that black people experience lower life expectancy than white people. Life
expectancy can be defined as the length of time of a person can live and it is based on the estimation of
average age of certain population. First step towards a healthy lifestyle is by receiving health screening
and a proper medical check up at the hospital or clinic. Unfortunately, not all countries provide health
care services. Ethnic minority group mostly live in a rural area where there is not much of access of
health care services necessarily and also early observation of any kind of diseases such as diabetes,
cancer, heart disease and more (Lowth, 2015). Apart from that, some of them still fear of obtaining
medical care. This is due to immigration they had to face every time. Immigration refer to a place or
the border of a country where the government officials inspect information and documents of people
that coming to that country. They also might not be able to afford healthy food for themselves as it is
difficult for them to find such place. Thus, people’s perception on health towards ethnic minorities
may cause racial discrimination and it will lead to an increase of high level of stress at the workplace.

In conclusion, this racial discrimination should never be practiced at the workplace in the first
place as it will arise misunderstanding and lead to an increase of work stress. People should throw
away their bad perception such as low educational level and poor health care towards ethnic minorities.
A good company is a company that have clear rules and regulations and provide some training and
program about culture and diversity in order to avoid and prevent prejudice at the workplace.
Employees also need to ensure that they keep their personal beliefs and not to impose it on others
especially the ethnic minority group.
References

Carollo, K, (2011). 5 Diseases More Common in Minorities. Retrieved from

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/diseases-common-minorities/story?id=14722258

Demie, F. & McLean, C. (2017). Black Carribean Underachievement in Schools in England. England:
Schools’s Research ans Statistics Unit.

Hobson, J. (2007). Racial discrimination, ethnicity and work stress. Occupational Medicine, 57(1),
18-24.

Lowth, M. (2015). Ethnicity and health - is there a problem? Ethnicity and Health. Retrieved from
https://patient.info/doctor/ethnicity-and-health

Pew Research Center. (2016). On Views of Race and Inequality, Blacks and Whites Are Worlds Apart.
Washington, DC 20036USA.