Is Favoritism at Work Illegal? Woods Rogers Attorneys Offer a Playbook for Investigating Employee Complaints about Favoritism

In an article published this week by HR Dive, Woods Rogers management-side employment attorneys Leah Stiegler and Emily Kendall Chowhan look at a common but complicated issue raised in a recent case out of the Southern District of Mississippi, where a plaintiff alleged that his supervisor “favored” his co-worker. The case looked at the question: Is it unlawful for a supervisor to play favorites?

Leah and Emily point out that favoritism in the workplace is normal behavior: “Supervisors play favorites all the time. A manager may assign a difficult project to their most skilled employee or assign the most profitable account to their best salesperson. There is no federal or state law that prohibits favoritism based on performance in the workplace. The general premise is: if you are a good performer, you should be rewarded.”

However, this can be a slippery slope for employers.

“Supervisors should be very transparent about the reasons for their decisions and should document the same. Employees don’t have to put forward evidence of discrimination to file a lawsuit. Instead, all it takes is for an employee to perceive that they are being discriminated against.”

The authors provide employers and HR professionals with tips on investigating employee complaints of favoritism and takeaways about managing this complex issue.

Read their article in HR Dive.