The booklet Workplace Discrimination Prevention Manual:2017 Edition written by
David A. Robinson begins by explaining the employment discrimination law and different types
of illegal discrimination practices that have arose in the workplace previously and for those that
may in the future. The introduction explains that there are more ways to illegally discriminate
against someone besides the most common ones. Discriminating against an employee because he
or she attempted to organize a union, took time off for jury duty, reported the employer to higher
authorities, or a bunch of other ways. (1) Robinson defined the term ‘“discriminate against” to
mean fire, demote, or other adverse employment decision.’ (2)
Chapter 1 discussed preventing race discrimination by almost always being color-blind.
Robinson described that there are more situations in management where you must be color-blind
and the situations where you must incorporate race when necessary. David talked about
situations where it would not hurt to hire a minority over a white person when the qualifications
of both parties are very similar, but only after discussing it with a lawyer to relieve the company
of wrongful discrimination while attempting to increase the workplace diversity. (25) As an
organization, preventing race discrimination is one of the front-burner issues in today’s time
because the big push is diversity and equality in the workplace.
Its usefulness to an organization and managers helps to prove to them that sometimes it is
okay to encompass race in a decision but not as the negative impact. It creates a sense of relief
to know that one does not have to be blind to such an important quality of the applicants. The
chapter also helps to reiterate that race and skin color should not be involved unless when
necessary to include such as when the company is lacking diversity within a certain department
or team. As a future human resources manager, I believe that this reinforced my beliefs that
being color-blind will decrease my chances of discriminating within the workplace, and will also
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make me work harder to ensure that I do not develop any implicit biases. As an African
American manager, I must work harder to ensure that I do not develop implicit biases towards
any minority and ensure that I remain color-blind.
Chapter 2 discussed sex equality and preventing sex discrimination. The chapter
explained that men and women were equal except for a few things such as pregnancies and
positions that are gender or sex specific, such as modeling. Robinson goes on to explain that the
theory that “women think, communicate, and manage employees differently than men do…”
should not be expressed or even possessed by a competent manager because this will soon lead
to the different treatment of either sex. (40) Robinson goes on to explain that pregnancies and
maternity leave are some of the exceptions where women differ from men. This segment is
especially important for organizations and managers in that they must understand that equality is
not 100 percent meaning equality. It means that there is a standard of fair treatment for all while
catering to the differences such as a pregnant or a breast-feeding mother in comparison to a male.
There are certain conditions that must be considered that there must be empathy. Robinson
suggested that if a manager fires a woman that it will be a smart idea to hire a woman as the
replacement to diffuse all discrimination complaints before they originate. (53) This segment is
important to me as a human resources manager because I must realize that just because I treat all
male and female employees the same as far as workload that I must take into consideration that a
pregnant woman should have special treatment to ensure her safety and the safety of the unborn
child. Also, I must be careful when proceeding through the hiring process to make sure that I do
not let the fact that a female applicant is pregnant affect the hiring decision. The stereotypes that
are learned prior to the workplace about women and men must be erased to ensure that one does
not incite an implicit bias towards one or the other.
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Robinson went on to explain preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. Robinson
stated the two type of sexual harassment that a company could be sued for as “1) quid pro quo
sexual harassment and 2) sexually hostile work environment.” (Page 54) Quid pro quo is defined
as a boss initiating a situation where a subordinate in subjected to either a promotion or demotion
in exchange for sexual advances or relationships. Quid pro quo is the most dangerous type in my
opinion because it is usually the one that is directly stated. It is the one that is most susceptible
for managers because they are in higher positions and have the sense of empowerment over the
employees and their future at the company. Robinson implies that a manager must be careful
about their decisions and to never date a subordinate to eliminate any chance of the quid pro quo.
The second type of sexual harassment that he discussed was sexual hostile work environment
defined by the sexual innuendos, advances or conduct being repetitive towards a party. This one
