When managers play favorites, it can not only have a detrimental effect on employee morale, but it can also cost the company money in lost productivity, lower efficiency, and even lawsuits.  Managers are people just like anyone else.  They have their own personalities and get along better with certain people, which is understandable.  It’s not always apparent to the manager how obvious the favoritism practices are to the rest of the employees and how much it can derail productivity.

Favoritism defined

Workplace favoritism occurs when a manager is giving better treatment to a person or group of people based on who the manager likes more rather than on who is the most qualified.  Better treatment can include promotions, projects, development opportunities, perks, inconsistent standards, and even different performance metrics for the same job.  The perception of favoritism can exist among employees even if the manager is basing decisions on work-related factors.  This occurs more frequently if there is a lack of communication from the manager to the rest of the team around how and why certain decisions were made.

High costs of favoritism for the organization

When there’s favoritism, employees feel as if the results that they produce don’t matter.  If other people aren’t being held to the standards, then there’s a perception that getting better results won’t help them advance.

It also divides people and pits peers on the same team against one another.  People may have animosity toward those who are being treated differently.  Team members may withhold support from one another and even try to sabotage each other’s efforts.  Instead of having a cohesive team, people divide into cliques that have their own agendas.

Favoritism can lead to lawsuits, which can stem from inconsistent treatment of employees.  One company I worked with received an age discrimination lawsuit.  The manager was young and was friends with the people she managed who were around her age, so she gave them the best projects and and eventually promoted them to the next position.  The other half of the team was comprised of people wh0 were older and did not receive the projects or development opportunities to move to the next level.  These employees over forty years of age (protected by ADEA) filed a lawsuit, claiming that they had been treated inconsistently and been passed over for promotions due to age.  Even though the manager’s intent hadn’t been to discriminate based on age, her inconsistent practices had caused discriminatory treatment.

Tips on avoiding favoritism

• Use objective criteria to measure people’s performance
• Give promotions and development opportunities based on a person’s strengths and accomplishments
• Find ways to learn about and understand people who are different from you
• Have developmental meetings with all individuals on the team
• Communicate with the entire team
• Allow employees to have a fair chance at coveted projects
• Develop and communicate a  process where employees can report favoritism or unfair treatment
• Build relationships with everyone on the team
• If certain people were chosen for a project/event/promotion, explain the reasoning
• Do not bad-mouth employees on the team to other team members (no matter how much you may trust your favorites, word gets out)
• Have a discussion with a manager who is perceived as playing favorites and help him/her come up with an action plan to avoid it