Discrimination at Workplace

This essay focuses on the age discrimination faced by Mr. Scheinberg at Apple Company and provides recommendations to remove discrimination at the workplace.

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Discrimination at workplace
Student’s Name
4/18/2019

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Introduction
Discrimination is considered as illegal and hampers the growth of the business. This essay
focuses on the age discrimination faced by Mr. Scheinberg irrespective of its contribution
towards Apple Company. It is analysed from the case that company focuses on recruiting
younger employees and have the wrong perceptions for the elderly individuals. The age
discrimination faced by Mr. Scheinberg created negative impact on the image of the company
and hampered the growth of the company. This essay will reflect upon the positive and the
negative impact of diversity at workplace and will also provide constructible
recommendations to remove discrimination at the company.
Discrimination and its types
Discrimination is treating or proposing to treat, someone unfavourably because of the
personal characteristic protected by the law. Discrimination is experienced when a person is
treated differently from other people due to the characteristics the person possess.
Discrimination is treated as illegal under the equality act 2010. This law consist of 9
protected characteristics which include: age, gender, race, disability, religion, pregnancy and
maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment and marriage, and civil partnership. If any
person is treated unfavourably due to possession to the above characteristics it is considered
unlawful under the equality act 2010 (Sharma, Shikha, and Nimarta Mann 2018).
There are various types of discrimination which leads to unfavourable behavior because the
person possesses the protected characteristics. Under direct discrimination, the person with
protected characteristics is treated less favourably than others. For example, a person is too
young or too old for the job. On the other hand, indirect discrimination consists of certain
rules or policies that provide a disadvantage to certain people or group (Vickers Lucy 2016).

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There are also other types of discrimination which includes discrimination by perception,
association, harassment, and victimization. Under discrimination by the perception the person
is treated unfavourably because it belongs to protected characteristics. For example, the
person who is heterosexual is not allowed for a rental home. In discrimination by association
the person is known by someone or associated with protected characteristics is treated
unfavourably. Harassment refers to the unwanted behaviour through which the person feels
humiliated, intimidated or offended. Lastly, victimisation refers when the person is treated
badly because the person has complained against the discrimination or has supported another
victim from discrimination (Bobbitt-Zeher Donna 2011).
Age Discrimination faced by Mr. Scheinberg
In consideration to Apple, Mr. Scheinberg faced discrimination by age. The company turned
down the job of Mr. Scheinberg for its genius bar because the company has the perception
that younger people have more capabilities and ability to bring innovations.
Apart from the greater contribution to the company Mr. Scheinberg faced the age
discrimination as the company believed that younger people will able to give more
contribution in the genius bar because often the elderly people are considered as difficult to
live, dependent and capable. These perceptions are considered as perfectly legitimate and
result in age discrimination which is considered the rationale and justified by the company
(Stypinska, Justyna, and Konrad Turek 2017).
The intention of the company was to make more profits from hiring 24-age worker than the
54- age worker irrespective of their experience and contribution to the company.
Discrimination on the basis of age is characterized by denial off rights and opportunities, the
difference in treatment and the use of stereotyped image based upon the chronological age of
the individual. The age discrimination is done due to the development of stereotyped

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prejudices regarding the abilities and nature of elderly individuals (Marchiondo, Lisa A.,
Ernest Gonzales, and Shan Ran 2016).
It is analyzed that Mr. Scheinberg suffered direct discrimination based upon age and does not
consider the ability of Mr. Scheinberg. The company did not realize that their opinions are
not rational and simply reflects the discrimination against the old-age group. The
discrimination against the protected characteristics leads to unfavourable behavior and creates
dissatisfaction among individuals.
The age discrimination faced by Mr. Scheinberg hampered the brand image of the company
as the discrimination was not justified and rational. The perceptions of the company towards
the elderly age group create discrimination and highlighted the dissatisfaction of Mr.
Scheinberg (Hebl, Mikki, E. R. Ruggs, L. R. Martinez, Rachel Trump-Steele, and Christine
Nittrouer 2015).
Negative impact on the organization
Increasing age discriminations created a negative environment in the company as the
employees feel dissatisfied and noticed the discrimination. This created poor perceptions
about company management and hampered the productivity of the company. The employees
of the company get concerned about their job loss due to age discrimination and however
lead to a negative environment in the company. The decrease in productivity hampered the
profitability of the company and thus contributed towards the negative brand image in the
public (Cheung, Ho Kwan, Eden King, Alex Lindsey, Ashley Membere, Hannah M. Markell,
and Molly Kilcullen 2016).
Another negative impact of age discrimination is the loss of the experiential workforce.
According to the discriminating policy practiced by Apple, the company faces the loss of the

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experience of elderly employees and in turn impacts the performance of the organization.
Conducting age discrimination is against the federal law however the company can be liable
for the monetary penalty in consideration to the practice of age discrimination and created a
negative impact on the image of the company (Barak, Michalle E. Mor 2016)
Recommendations for HR of Apple
The HR manager of apple must focus on designing a clear and indisputable policy for the
company. This policy must describe that federal age discrimination act protects the individual
from being harassed and not treated well. The policy must include all the protected
characteristics and must also include the penalties for violating the discrimination policy.
The manager must promote this law in the prospectus and must promote it using posters to
communicate it all through the office and provide clarity to all the employees regarding the
policy of the company. The company must also focus on the action plan it must describe the
consequences due to violation of the policy. The employees who found guilty for practicing
ageism will be immediately terminated and the HR must raise penalties which include
demotion and suspension (Harvey, Carol P., and M. Allard 2015)
The HR manager must focus on providing training to the diverse workforce regarding the
issue of discrimination and harassment to create awareness and avoid the practice of
discrimination. It must focus on encouraging mentoring at the workplace and must pair the
workforce of different ages to share the experience in the upward and the downward direction
and help in the development of unique skills and knowledge. HR must be active and take
immediate action regarding the violation of the discrimination policy. It must listen
attentively and must undertake immediate action by hiring the third party to avoid biases and
avoid legal ramifications. Once the judgment is taken it must implement the action plan to
avoid the discriminations in the future. Application of the above recommendations will help

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the company to avoid the discriminations and protect the image of the company (Harvey,
Carol P., and M. Allard 2015)
Diversity at the workplace
The increasing diversity at workplace helps in enhancing the profitability of the company as
the employees with different culture and backgrounds develop unique ideas to develop the
product and target the customers. It is analyzed that a company becomes more successful
when it effectively manages a diverse workforce and are able to attain higher profits. The
organizations must focus on reducing the cultural barriers and explicitly handles the diversity
issues faced by the workers. It must realize the importance of the diverse workforce and must
reap the maximum benefit (Phillips, Brian N., Jon Deiches, Blaise Morrison, Fong Chan, and
Jill L. Bezyak 2016)
The positive impact of a diverse workforce
Involvement of a diverse workforce helps the company to unlock innovation and develop
creative ideas for the achievement of the objectives. The recruitment of diverse leaders and
team members helps the company to emerge innovative ideas and sharing of the diverse
experience will help the company in increasing its profit and achieve success. Development
of the unique ideas helps the company in increasing its productivity and effective
management of diversity creates a harmonious environment in the organization where all the
team members analyses their capabilities and the strengths of other members. They have
respect for each other and value each other decisions. Embracing diversity at the workplace
helps in developing a positive reputation of the company. It also provides the opportunity to
the business to diversify its business to the international areas by avoiding the linguistic
barriers and getting the knowledge of the diverse cultures (Rice, Mitchell F 2015).

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Another positive impact of the inclusion of diversity is it helps in enhancing the employee
performance as the employees feel motivated if they receive equal rights and pay for their
work irrespective of their background and culture. The employees receive equal opportunities
for personal development and thus motivate the employees to enhance their performance and
efficiently achieve the goals of the organization (Kim, Regina, Loriann Roberson, Marcello
Russo, and Paola Briganti 2019).
Cultural diversity at the workplace helps the employees to enhance their knowledge and skills
by sharing the experience of the diverse workforce and also helps the employees to get the
cultural insights of the diverse people and reduces the negative emotions such as racism or
homophobia. It helps in the personal and professional growth of the employees because
having the experience of diverse culture provides the opportunity to the employees to become
the global citizen and develop the skills and knowledge (Lambert, Jason 2016).
The negative impact of a diverse workforce
Diversity at the workplace can also lead to a negative impact on the organization as well as
individuals. It is analyzed at the diverse workplace the freedom of speech is less as the
employees become sensitive towards their culture, background, and race and creates
difficulty in expressing the opinion of different employees. The employees have the fear of
being judged because of discrimination. This reduces the fun at the workplace because the
employees have to be cautious before speaking. The communication issues at the workplace
also act as the major threat for the company because linguistic barriers can create
misunderstandings and can lead to false a decision which in turn affects the productivity of
the company. The training of diversity becomes expensive and complex to train the
employees about the diverse cultures and it becomes difficult for the acceptability of the
diverse cultures (Lambert, Jason 2016).

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The company also faces the integration issues as diverse culture employees resist sharing
their knowledge, experience, and skills and do not integrate to work as a team. This also leads
to the situation of increasing competition among the employees and do not prefer to work and
collaborate as a team. It shifts the focus on achieving the group goals towards the individual
goals. However, it hampers the growth of the business because the competition increased
among the employees (Hunt, Vivian, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince 2015).
Increasing diversity in the workplace also affects the individuals as the employees do not
accept the culture of the other employees and starting disrespecting and creates differences
among the workforce. This creates tension, pressure and disturbs the harmonize environment.
The cultural differences among employees create discrimination, harassment, and
victimization. The employees are not treated well and unfavorable behavior with the
employees creates dissatisfaction. The employees feel harassed and often seen dominated by
the senior level positions. Such an environment creates a distraction and loses the interest of
the employees. The formation of the informal groups dominates the lower position groups
and are reluctant to interact to the diverse workforce such actions create loneliness and the
employees become homophobia (Boehm, Stephan A., and Florian Kunze 2015).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is crucial to note that discrimination at the workplace is
considered as a legal offense and is protected under the equality act 2010. It is analyzed that
Mr. Scheinberg faced the age discrimination and was turned down for the job at the genius
bar. The discrimination has various types and creates a negative impact on the growth of the
business. It is analyzed that growing diversity at the workplace leaves the positive and
negative impact on the organization and on the individuals.

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