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Speaker 1: Hi, we are back with our ask me anything segment

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Speaker 1: where we take a work related question that you have

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Speaker 1: sent to us. Today's question was sent in by our

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Speaker 1: listener s so s thinks that there is serious office

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Speaker 1: politics and favoritism in her office and this is at

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Speaker 1: senior management level. Now, her team feels that their manager

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Speaker 1: is not in the good books of the director and

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Speaker 1: that's affecting all of their career prospects. There's another manager

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Speaker 1: who is seen as the favorite and those under that

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Speaker 1: manager's team is getting more recognition

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Speaker 1: is sure that there is nothing wrong with her team's

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Speaker 1: work performance because their grades are always above average even

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Speaker 1: better than the other teams. And her team is also

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Speaker 1: the highest contributor in the company. Ok. So the evidence

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Speaker 1: points that ssa's team is doing very well, but the

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Speaker 1: situation of not being favored is affecting her. Now, jal

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Speaker 1: favoritism in the workplace. Have you seen many instances of

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Speaker 1: it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah,

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Speaker 2: definitely a lot. And we cannot run away from it.

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Speaker 2: Humans being humans. We are all biased one way or another.

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Speaker 2: And I think we always have preferences. We cannot erase it.

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Speaker 2: What we can only do is to see whether it

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Speaker 2: becomes dysfunctional or becomes toxic. I think when the workplace

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Speaker 2: starts to have a lot of toxic or unhealthy favoritism,

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Speaker 2: it creates a really bad culture of work where there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of distrust, loss of morale

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Speaker 2: and even employees don't really want to work. Yeah, they

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Speaker 2: see no point in working so hard when I'm not

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Speaker 2: going to get the rewards, I'm not going to get

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Speaker 2: the outcome that I think I deserve. But

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Speaker 1: then like some managers might say I'm not, I'm not

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Speaker 1: practicing favoritism. I mean, what if it's a matter of perception? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's a

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Speaker 2: fair point of Tiffany because very often when our minds

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Speaker 2: try to explain certain things or behaviors and we don't

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Speaker 2: really have an answer. We tend to gravitate towards favoritism.

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Speaker 2: So

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Speaker 1: it's

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Speaker 1: the other person's fault, not yours.

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Speaker 2: So I think if today in situation, we should be

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Speaker 2: mindful not to use favoritism for everything that we feel

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Speaker 2: unfair about. Maybe sometimes it's more healthy for us to

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Speaker 2: also think about it objectively what could be some possible

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Speaker 2: reasons why these things are happening just because we cannot

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Speaker 2: explain for something, doesn't mean that it's unfair or there's

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Speaker 2: favoritism at place, right? I guess the only challenge is

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Speaker 2: how to distinguish how to distinguish whether it is a

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Speaker 2: fact or is it like something just in your mind?

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think in Essa's case, she feels that

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Speaker 1: it's fact because she mentioned all these different data points, right?

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Speaker 1: The results show for itself, they contribute the most to

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Speaker 1: the company. But at the same time, the other team

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Speaker 1: is always getting the promotions and the opportunities and she's

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Speaker 1: kind of explaining down to it's not us. It's actually

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Speaker 1: the boss, like my boss, the person who is leading

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Speaker 1: the team. So what can she do then?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it really sounds like her boss is the issue.

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Speaker 2: And I just imagine all the conversations and her colleagues

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Speaker 2: have about the situation because it's probably not just her

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Speaker 2: feeling that way, right? So if this is just a

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Speaker 2: one off incident, I think people can kind of let

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Speaker 2: that go.

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Speaker 2: But if it's often repeated over and over again, maybe

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Speaker 2: over years, then I think maybe you have to think

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Speaker 2: a little bit harder about what to do. So if

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Speaker 2: today indeed favoritism is present and it's not healthy, it's

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Speaker 2: affecting people's morale. I think one of the things that

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Speaker 2: could do perhaps is to just have a conversation, private

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Speaker 2: one with the manager,

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Speaker 1: ok, with her direct boss, the one who she feels

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Speaker 1: is not being favored.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think having that private conversation to find out.

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Speaker 2: Is there an issue?

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Speaker 1: Is there something

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Speaker 1: wrong with?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because I don't know. But if today I'm the

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Speaker 2: boss working as team, I would also kind of feel

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Speaker 2: that how come I'm not favor, how come my team

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Speaker 2: is not favored?

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Speaker 1: Right? And I'm

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Speaker 1: affecting my own people

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 2: Correct. So I think if s could have that open

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Speaker 2: private conversation with the boss to talk about this issue

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Speaker 2: and also maybe to explain how they feel, how she

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Speaker 2: feels about the favoritism part, then maybe she'll get some

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Speaker 2: answers behind it. So that's one, of course, it depends

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Speaker 2: on whether the manager is open

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Speaker 2: to share their own challenges with us. If having a

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Speaker 2: conversation with the boss is not a possibility, then maybe

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Speaker 2: raise this up to the hr especially if it affects

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Speaker 2: things like rewards, remuneration. People are getting promoted or getting

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Speaker 2: more pay or getting more bonuses ahead for repeated times.

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Speaker 2: I think it's warranted to raise up to hr to

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Speaker 2: flag out to say, hey, what's going on? How come

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Speaker 2: my performance is not producing the expected recognition? Yeah. If

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Speaker 2: the companies have got like discrimination policies, maybe you want

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Speaker 2: to read

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Speaker 2: it up and see whether is there any grounds to

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Speaker 2: whistle blow if there's a need to? Right. And of

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Speaker 2: course most companies, they will have employee engagement surveys. Maybe

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Speaker 2: that's a good time to maybe pin down some points

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Speaker 2: to get them to get management and hr to take

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Speaker 2: notice of how this favoritism is playing out. How is

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Speaker 2: it affecting morale? How is it affecting rewards and recognition

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Speaker 2: and last, but not least if it gets too bad

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Speaker 2: and if nothing is done then as maybe we have

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Speaker 2: to consider to leave. Yeah. Yeah, I think that

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Speaker 2: wouldn't be ruled out. But maybe if I'm si will

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Speaker 2: probably try to explore all the options step by step

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Speaker 2: first to see because we have to remember that s

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Speaker 2: is working in high performing team. There's a lot that's

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Speaker 2: going well for her as well. So leaving right now

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Speaker 2: may not be the best thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. But also at the same time, if they are

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Speaker 1: a very high performing team and the boss or the

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Speaker 1: director is seeing that most people are leaving this team,

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Speaker 1: they too will also kind of take action. They might

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Speaker 1: take some of these feedback a bit more seriously. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: maybe

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Speaker 2: boss would leave or maybe the boss would be transferred

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Speaker 2: to another department and then somebody who comes in and

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Speaker 2: things will be different. So yeah, a lot can happen,

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Speaker 1: a

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Speaker 2: lot can

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Speaker 1: happen. So as I hope your situation turns for the

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Speaker 1: better sooner rather than later. And if like as you

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Speaker 1: have a question that Gerald or even sometimes myself, I

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Speaker 1: can answer for you, send it to us at CN

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Speaker 1: A podcasts at media corp.com dot SG. We're also on

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Speaker 1: Spotify Apple Podcasts or youtube where a video version of

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Speaker 1: this is at

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Speaker 1: the team behind the work it podcast is Christina Robert

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Speaker 1: Joan Chan, Jaini, Johari sw and to Yan Yan sound

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Speaker 1: mixing is by Carrie Lim video by Haida Amin. I'm

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Speaker 1: Jal and I'm Tiffany have a super work week ahead