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Managing your work/life balance can be extremely difficult. Especially when you feel as though things aren’t going well at work. Have you ever had that feeling that maybe you’re being taken advantage of and not treated fairly? Well, the truth is, if you feel this way, then you probably aren’t being treated fairly at all. Too many companies will take advantage of their employees, particularly if they feel like they’re perhaps ‘weaker’ than them.

 

As women, we usually get the worse end of the stick. Most employers think they can easily intimidate women, which means they feel as though they can get away with anything without seeing the consequence. Well, no more. It’s time to stand up for ourselves and prove we’re a lot stronger than they think. Firstly, you need to figure out if your suspicions of poor treatment have any weight behind them. So, here are a few ways you can tell that you’re being treated unfairly at work.

You Don’t Receive Pay When You’re Off Work

By law, if you’re a registered employee of a company, you’re entitled to certain benefits. One of the universal benefits is that you still receive full pay when you’re off work. We all get a set amount of holiday days given to us by our employees, and we should get paid for them. So, if you take a few days off, and you’re still in your allocated holiday days, then you should still see money in your account for this time off. The same applies to people who are sick or injured and can’t work. Talk to any workers comp lawyer, and they’ll tell you you’re entitled to money if you can’t work because of an injury. If your employer isn’t paying you for any time off work, then you’re being treated unfairly. The only time this is allowed is if you go over the limit of time off work. If you’re given 28 days of holiday, and you’ve used them all up, then you aren’t entitled to money if you decide to go on holiday again.

 

Fascinating study of gender pay gap among Uber drivers. Men earn 8% more. No evidence of discrimination. So why a gap? MINOR factors:Men work more lucrative hrs &routes; they stick with job longer, so have >experience. MAJOR factor: Guys drive faster.  https://t.co/8PkLj64OOn

— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) February 7, 2018

 

You Get Paid Way Less Than Other People In Similar Roles

For me, this is the clearest form of mistreatment at work. If you’re doing the same job as someone else, but get paid less, then something’s seriously wrong there. Sadly, this happens to a lot of women in work, throughout many industries, at many different levels. The gap between male and female wages is still very much there. It’s bad enough when you see people in different companies getting paid more to do your job, but it’s even worse when it happens in your organization. It’s a clear sign that you’re being treated unfairly, and you should flag it up with HR or someone in a higher role. Express your concerns, and demand some sort of explanation. This is quite interesting because it’s intriguing to see how they’ll try and justify paying two people different wages for the same job. Hopefully, just flagging this will force them to give you a raise. If not, look around for a new job and quit this company because they clearly don’t value you as an employee.

You Keep Being Given The Rubbish Jobs

This is one of the more subtle ways you can be unfairly treated at work. Let’s say you work in an office as part of a team. You all have the same job title, and you all get assigned jobs to do throughout the day. One of your team can be put on phone answering duty, someone else may be in charge of answering emails, but you get stuck with the long, tedious jobs like sorting through thousands of paper files. If this is a one-off, and everyone rotates through different roles, then it’s fine, that’s fair. But, on a daily basis, if you’re always being lumped with the bad jobs, then that’s just not on. It makes it feel like your boss has something against you, and I think you should make it known. Talk to human resources and explain the situation that people in the same team as you, with the same job title, are being given much easier jobs all the time. You keep getting lumped with the jobs nobody wants to do, and it’s just unfair. Hopefully, raising your concerns makes a difference and work will be assigned more fairly in the future.

You’re The Butt Of All The Jokes

This is another one of the subtle ways you can be treated badly at work. I mean, sure, workplace banter is a common thing. There’s nothing wrong with everyone having a laugh and making jokes about one another. If anything, it’s encouraging because it brings the team together and you feel comfortable enough making one of each other. The problem is when you’re the only one that gets made fun of. You’re the only person people make jokes about, and people get really defensive and annoyed if you make jokes back. Here, this could be classified as workplace bullying, particularly if you’re not okay with it and the jokes get really personal. It’s even worse when your superiors are the ones cracking the jokes, because you feel defenceless like you can’t respond. Again, this is another issue for HR, but you could also take legal action too. Particularly if the treatment gets so bad that you leave work or get fired because you made a joke back and your boss didn’t like it.

 

If you’ve been reading this and noticed a few things that you can relate to, then you’re probably being treated unfairly. It’s horrible when this happens, as it makes you feel really unmotivated to go to work. Your mood carries on when you get home too, meaning you can’t be as good a parent as you want to be. Your children don’t get the attention they need because your mind is at work. So, take some of my advice, raise your concerns, explore legal options, and think about finding a new job. This helps you find the right work/life balance and be happier in your career.