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Lorenzo Martinez

Profesor Perkins

English 101

18 November 2021

Diversity in Work

Diverse: Including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic

backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc. In the workforce there is no doubt

that there is a lack of diversity. Ever since the beginning, there has been some sort of segregation

but people all have their understanding and add new provisions. Countless businesses have been

blamed for work environment segregation in the past century. All the government does is try to

secure the representatives' freedom by directing this separation. Work segregation exists all over

businesses where they treat workers less due to their race, sex, ethnicity, etc.

Simply due to the fact of one's age, business will treat you differently. As younger

workers budge their way in the work environment businesses can make these workers feel

insignificant. These younger individuals feel as if their opinions are invalid due to their

colleagues. It’s no question that these guys aren't as seasoned as an older worker. That's also why

some businesses choose to pass up on opportunities with young workers because the older

workers bring the experience these businesses want. Businesses do want experience no doubt,

but there should be no reason not to diversify the environment and bring new younger minded

ideas to the table. Not only do younger workers get treated unfairly, but so do the older workers.

There have been lots of incidents where an employee got laid off because they are too old. “More

than half of these older workers are prematurely pushed out of longtime jobs and 90 percent of

them never earn as much again” (Kita). Age descrimination for these older workers is like a
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hurdle to finding a new job; they struggle to find a job. It should not be accepted that business

can determine the quality of one's work just by their age.

Businesses segregate workers due to their race, color, and ethnicity more than you know

it. People of color are treated unfairly and poorly in their work environment. These insults are

taken further and make it hard for one to advance. CNN/Kaiser Family Foundation took a poll on

race in America and the outcome of it was “69% of blacks and 57% of Hispanics say past and

present discrimination is a major reason for the problems facing people of their racial or ethnic

group” (Vega). Thousands of cases get written up for race based discrimination, but more than

70% of these cases got dismissed in 2014 alone. While this descrimination can be very oblivious,

it can also be very hard to prove with evidence. Even before all of this, an applicant is more

likely to not have their application chosen with a black sounding name compared to white

sounding name. Studies also show that in the restaurant business white applicants were given

longer interviews on average than black applicants. The white applicants also were treated more

friendly and more likely to be offered a job. The problem is that these businesses have the

interviewer finding a culture fit person for the job while overlooking others based on their

culture.

Gender descrimination in the workplace makes it lack diversity as well. Businesses

choose to long gender discrimination in the workforce. This is directed towards women most of

the time in this situation. Women take less pay for the same job of a man, no matter if the quality

is clearly better, in many businesses. Gender pay is often overlooked, but women do not get the

same pay and there is no question about it. Researchers suggest a healthy amount of supervisors

are biased towards a certain gender. Man or Woman, they are treated poorly for just the reason

they are a certain gender. Researchers suggest bosses will award promotions or incentives
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because of an individual's gender. Many women in the workforce get passed up for promotions

even if the work shows that they should have got it. It has been argued that one's gender would

make them less eligible for the job. However they are wrong because men and women bring

different insights and point of views to the table which could ultimately lead to the superior

performance of the business. There are statistics from more than 800 businesses showing that

“Gender-diverse business units in the retail company have 14% higher average comparable

revenue than less-diverse business units” (Badal). Furthermore, gender segregated work

environments are not fit and should not be accepted to the American eye.

As more voices are being heard about the descrimination in the work environment,

businesses are going to have to take these allegations head on. There is no avoiding the fact that

people get treated unfairly all the time, even when you're not looking, while simply working their

job. Businesses have continued this barbaric behavior for too long of a time and have to be put in

the right place. Even though a business would say that these factors could hinder their

successfullness, they cannot discriminate an induvidual based on their their sex, color, ethnicity

or gender. Descrimination in the workforce is very unfair and needs to be taken seriously with

precaution.
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Works Cited

Kita, Joe. “Age Discrimination Still Thrives in America.” AARP, 30 Dec. 2019,

https://www.aarp.org/work/working-at-50-plus/info-2019/age-discrimination-in-

america.html.

She learned to climb utility poles. “Working While Brown: What Discrimination Looks

like Now.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network,

https://money.cnn.com/2015/11/25/news/economy/racial-discrimination-work/.

Badal, Sangeeta Bharadwaj. “The Business Benefits of Gender Diversity.” Gallup.com,

Gallup, 20 Nov. 2021, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236543/business-benefits-

gender-diversity.aspx.