Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms. Generally, discriminatory behavior is characterized by one of the following types:
Disparate treatment, or direct discrimination: Direct discrimination is the most apparent form of discriminatory conduct. It may involve excluding an employee because of their association to a protected class, passing them for a promotion when they meet the qualifications or using slurs.
Disparate impact, or indirect discrimination: Indirect discrimination is not a single or isolated incident like above. Instead, indirect discrimination describes a company policy or rule that adversely affects one protected class of people. The discriminatory policy may not intentionally be unfair. However, that does not excuse the need to change the policy.
An example of disparate impact may be when an employer creates a no facial hair policy to maintain a specific look for employees. However, a cleanly shaven policy may discriminate against someone for medical reasons. For some races with the skin condition, pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB), when the skin is irritated by a close shave, it can break out in acne-like bumps that can leave deep scars. Medically, the condition is less likely to flare up if the shave is not very close.
Harassment: Harassment is pervasive, ongoing, and unwanted conduct. Workplace harassment can take many forms, including verbal abuse, physical abuse, psychological harassment, digital harassment, or sexual harassment.
Harassment may involve racist or discriminatory jokes, posting offensive materials, unwelcome sexual advances, bullying, slurs, or intimidating and aggressive behavior.
Retaliation: Retaliation is the discriminatory actions against someone who has filed a complaint, charge, or participates in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation.