Max Finsky is an eminent psychologist that specializes in the subject of Industrial-Organizational psychology that deals with workplace dynamics as well as other human social interactions. He helps employers and businesses to understand interactions in the office.
Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of the field of I/O psychology, Max can dissect many issues that are prevalent in the workplace and help discover ways to solve them. One of these issues is discrimination and prejudice in the workplace. In this interview, Max Finsky tells us about what he thinks of the issues and how he can help employers, as well as employees, solve it.
The seriousness of prejudice and discrimination for Max Finsky
Q- How prevalent and severe is the issue of prejudice and discrimination in the workplace:
Max Finsky: Diversity is only getting bigger everywhere. As a result of that, people will grow to become more aggressive towards a particular group. This attitude isn’t always about race; it can be about culture, habits, language, age, and other areas. The problem of prejudice and discrimination always pops up regardless of the country, type of company, or how sophisticated the company is. It can make people very uncomfortable, which is not the best thing when you’re trying to optimize the success of a company.
How to recognize discrimination:
Q- How does one spot an instance of discrimination:
Max Finsky: There are many types of bias or prejudice, and it can be due to several things. Discrimination can be on sex, gender, age, language, race, politics, religion, and other areas. You can spot them easily when someone behaves differently toward a particular person because of whatever beliefs they hold.
Tips for managing prejudice and discrimination:
Q-What are some of the guidelines you set for employers to follow to avoid this issue:
Max Finsky: The first thing I ask of every employer is to treat this issue very seriously if it pops up. Discrimination against another group can lead to some serious outcomes such as harassment and aggressiveness, which will eventually lead to a toxic workplace. Therefore, we handle this issue at the core, and we bring both the reporter and the person responsible for discrimination to HR so we can discuss what happened. This usually results in both of them understanding that the workplace is not a place for fighting or games. Most times, people use some prejudice as a social lubricant to pass the time or make fun of people. This is very serious, and people take offend of that.
Max Finskiy usually gives people three tips to help fight discrimination:
- Educate: Not a lot of people are even aware that they are discriminating, and they are also not aware that someone took offend of that. So make sure that you teach people about discrimination, so they don’t do it. This is also going to help people understand and respect each other in the workplace.
- Respond: You always want to reply to any complaint or harassment in the workplace as soon as possible. This means that you take this very seriously, and it teaches people that this is a line not to be crossed.
- Execute: If you have made it clear that the workplace should not have any discrimination or prejudice against race, age, sex, language, disabilities, politics, religion, or sexual orientation, then you should execute the rules. This can be by putting someone in a disciplinary order for a few weeks or even firing someone.
Learn more about Max on his website.