What is favoritism in the workplace: Definition and top strategies to eliminate it

Remember when you were in school, and there was always that one kid who got away with everything? Whether it was turning in homework late or getting picked first for every class activity, it was obvious the teacher had a favorite. Frustrating, right?

Now, fast forward to the workplace—where favoritism isn’t just about playground privileges but promotions, project assignments, and career growth. It’s not just annoying; it can derail an entire team’s motivation.

Workplace favoritism can quietly erode trust, leaving employees disengaged and questioning their value. In this blog, we’ll explore how favoritism takes root, the impact it has on your organization’s culture, and what you can do as a leader to foster a more balanced, merit-based environment. Let’s break it down.

What is favoritism in the workplace?

Workplace favoritism occurs when certain employees receive preferential treatment over others, not based on objective performance or qualifications but due to personal relationship, biases, or subjective preferences. This covert practice undermines fairness and equality, creating a toxic work environment where merit often takes a backseat to favoritism.

Examples of favoritism include managers promoting their protégés, consistently assigning high-profile projects to select employees, or offering perks like flexible schedules or lighter workloads to a favored few. These actions can erode employee morale, foster resentment, and damage trust in leadership.

Favoritism also compromises professional growth for non-favored employees, limiting their opportunities to advance and succeed. Over time, this inequity hinders team cohesion and creates a workplace culture where some employees feel undervalued or overlooked.

Ultimately, workplace favoritism perpetuates inequality and harms an organization’s ability to build a fair, inclusive, and productive environment. Addressing favoritism requires clear policies, transparency, and merit-based decision-making to ensure every employee has equal opportunities to thrive.

Types of favoritism in the workplace

Recognizing different types of favoritism in the workplace helps organizations address unfair treatment and promote a fair work environment.

• Tenure-based favoritism: Long-term employees may get easier workloads and automatic promotions, affecting new hires' morale and reinforcing favoritism at work. This can hinder fresh ideas and discourage newer talent from advancing. Addressing tenure bias is key to ensuring equal growth opportunities.
• Cultural favoritism: Managers may unconsciously favor employees with similar backgrounds, limiting diversity and reinforcing workplace favoritism. This can result in exclusion and missed opportunities for others. Encouraging inclusivity can help prevent biased decision-making.
• Proximity favoritism: Employees working closer to leadership may receive better opportunities and visibility, contributing to favoritism in the workplace. Remote workers often feel overlooked, affecting engagement and career growth. Fair policies can ensure equal treatment across locations.
• Crisis favoritism: Managers may favor trusted employees during tough times, creating job security gaps and fostering favoritism at work. This can undermine team morale and limit opportunities for equally capable staff. Transparent crisis management can prevent unfair advantages.
• Favoritism in conflict resolution: Preferred employees may face lenient treatment in disputes, weakening trust and highlighting workplace favoritism. Stricter scrutiny of others can foster resentment and disengagement. Implementing impartial conflict policies is crucial for fairness.
• Favoritism in resource allocation: Some employees may receive better tools and budgets due to personal preferences, leading to favoritism meaning unequal opportunities. This can create inefficiencies and frustration. Fair distribution of resources ensures balanced team productivity.

Common causes of favoritism in the workplace

Workplace favoritism is not as uncommon as it seems, and there are plenty of reasons that it could be happening in your organization as well. Let’s take a look at them.

• Personal relationships: One of the primary causes of favoritism is the influence of personal relationships. Managers may exhibit bias towards employees with whom they share personal connections, whether through friendships, family ties, or social networks.
• Similarity bias: Human nature tends to favor those who share similar characteristics, backgrounds, or interests. Managers may unconsciously show preferential treatment to employees or family members who mirror their own traits, leading to a bias against those who differ.
• Performance misjudgment: Managers may fall into the trap of favoritism by incorrectly evaluating an employee's performance. If a manager has preconceived notions or biases about a favorite employee, they might misinterpret or overlook the achievements and contributions of certain individuals, favoring others without a solid basis.
• Perceived competence: Employees who are perceived as more competent or skilled than other employees may receive preferential treatment. This bias can arise from a manager's subjective judgment rather than an objective assessment of an individual's abilities and accomplishments.
• Loyalty and obedience: Managers might favor employees who exhibit unwavering loyalty or unquestioning obedience, valuing compliance over independent thinking. This preference can lead to a skewed distribution of opportunities and rewards, disadvantaging those who may question the status quo or offer alternative perspectives.
• Social influence: Employees who have strong social influence within the organization, such as being well-liked by peers or having a charismatic personality, may be favored by managers. This favoritism can stem from the manager’s desire to align with popular individuals, regardless of their actual job performance.
• Seniority bias: Employees with longer tenure in the organization may receive favoritism based on their seniority rather than their current performance or potential. Managers might feel obligated to reward long-serving employees, which can create an unfair advantage for senior leadership over newer, potentially more qualified team members.
• Availability bias: Managers may favor employees who are more readily available or visible, such as those who frequently interact with them or are located in the same office. This proximity can lead to unintentional favoritism, where remote or less visible employees are overlooked despite their contributions.
• Flattery and ingratiation: Employees who engage in flattery or ingratiating behavior towards managers may receive preferential treatment. Managers might subconsciously reward those who consistently praise them or go out of their way to please, even if their performance is not superior to that of others.
• Risk aversion: Managers may favor employees who are less likely to challenge their decisions or take risks. By rewarding those who maintain the status quo, managers might avoid the discomfort of dealing with new ideas or potential conflicts, which can stifle innovation and create an uneven playing field.
• External pressures: Favoritism can also arise from external pressures, such as recommendations from higher-ups or influential stakeholders. Managers might feel compelled to favor certain employees due to these outside influences, which can undermine fairness and merit-based recognition in the workplace.

Signs of favoritism in the workplace

Identifying favoritism in the workplace is essential to fostering fairness and preventing negative impacts on morale and trust. Here are the signs of favoritism at work:

• Unequal access to leadership: Certain employees have more direct interactions with managers, gaining influence over decisions and opportunities, which reflects what is favoritism in the workplace and creates an uneven playing field. Transparent leadership interactions can help mitigate such biases.
• Disproportionate career growth patterns: Some employees experience rapid promotions without justification, while equally qualified peers are overlooked, serving as clear favoritism in workplace examples that undermine merit-based advancement. Establishing clear promotion criteria ensures fairness.
• Inconsistent application of feedback: When favored employees receive positive reviews despite performance issues, while others are held to stricter standards, it exemplifies favoritism meaning in performance evaluations. Objective review processes can help address this issue.
• Exclusion from decision-making: Employees outside the favored circle are often left out of important meetings, highlighting examples of favoritism in the workplace that hinder collaboration. Inclusive decision-making fosters equal participation.
• Frequent changes in work assignments: Preferential allocation of high-impact projects to certain individuals demonstrates favoritism in workplace, affecting workload balance and team morale. Fair distribution of tasks ensures equal growth opportunities.
• Lack of accountability for favored employees: When select employees evade consequences for poor performance, it showcases favoritism in the workplace examples that can erode team trust. Consistent enforcement of accountability measures is crucial.

Is favoritism in the workplace illegal?

Favoritism in the workplace is not inherently illegal, but it can become a legal issue when it leads to discrimination. If favoritism results in biased treatment based on protected characteristics such as race, gender, age, or religion, it may violate anti-discrimination laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the U.S.

For example, consistently favoring employees of a certain gender in promotions could be considered unlawful discrimination. Favoritism can also lead to claims of unfair employment practices related to hiring, job assignments, or benefits, prompting complaints to agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

To avoid legal risks, organizations should implement clear, merit-based policies and ensure fairness in decision-making. Promoting transparency and objectivity helps mitigate disputes and fosters a more equitable workplace.

Favoritism and bias in the workplace

What are the negative effects of favoritism in the workplace?

Here are the top ways workplace favoritism negatively affects an organization.

• Decreased morale: Favoritism can create an environment where non-favored employees feel undervalued and demotivated. This decline in morale can spread throughout the workforce, affecting overall job satisfaction, decreased productivity, and engagement.
• Reduced productivity: When employees perceive that promotions, opportunities, and recognition are not based on merit, it can lead to a lack of motivation and a decline in productivity. Frustration and resentment among such employees may hinder collaborative efforts and teamwork.
• High turnover rates: Workplace favoritism can contribute to higher employee turnover rates. Individuals who feel unfairly treated or overlooked may seek better opportunities elsewhere, impacting the organization's stability and continuity.
• Impaired team dynamics: A favored employee may enjoy special treatment and privileges, creating divisions within the team. This can disrupt teamwork and collaboration, as non-favored individuals may feel excluded or hesitant to contribute their best efforts.
• Inequality and discrimination: Favoritism perpetuates inequality and can be perceived as a form of discrimination. This not only damages the professional growth of individuals who are not in the favored circle but also undermines the principles of fairness and diversity within the workplace.
• Negative organizational culture: A culture of favoritism erodes trust and damages the overall reputation of an organization. It can create a toxic work environment where employees are more focused on personal connections than on contributing to the collective success of the company.
• Legal consequences: If favoritism leads to discrimination against a particular employee, it may result in legal consequences for the organization. Lawsuits and legal actions can arise if employees believe they have been treated unfairly based on factors such as race, gender, or other protected characteristics.
• Stifled innovation: Favoritism can stifle innovation as non-favored employees may feel their ideas and contributions are not valued. This can lead to a lack of creative solutions and hinder the organization's ability to innovate and stay competitive.
• Increased stress levels: The presence of favoritism can increase stress levels among employees who feel they are constantly being overlooked or unfairly judged. This heightened stress can lead to burnout, decreased mental health, and higher absenteeism rates, further affecting organizational performance.
• Erosion of trust: Favoritism can erode trust between employees and management. When employees perceive that decisions are influenced by favoritism rather than merit, it can lead to skepticism about the fairness of leadership and decision-making processes.
• Decreased employee engagement: Employees who perceive favoritism may become disengaged, showing less enthusiasm and commitment to their work. This disengagement can manifest in a lack of initiative and reduced effort, impacting overall team performance.
• Unfair distribution of resources: Favoritism can lead to an uneven distribution of resources, such as training opportunities, project assignments, and career development programs. This imbalance can limit the growth potential of non-favored employees and perpetuate a cycle of inequality.
• Damage to leadership credibility: Managers who engage in favoritism may damage their own credibility and authority. When employees see that decisions are based on personal biases rather than objective criteria, it can undermine the leader’s ability to effectively manage and inspire their team.

How to address favoritism in the workplace?

Addressing favoritism requires a proactive and transparent approach to ensure fairness and equal opportunities for all employees. Here are key strategies to tackle favoritism effectively:

• Establish clear criteria: Define unbiased standards for performance evaluations, promotions, and other career opportunities to ensure merit-based decisions.
• Implement structured feedback: Use objective feedback mechanisms to recognize and reward employee contributions fairly.
• Encourage open communication: Create safe channels for employees to express concerns without fear of retaliation.
• Provide DEI training: Conduct diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to raise awareness and promote a fair workplace culture.
• Lead by example: Managers and leaders should demonstrate impartiality and fairness in their decision-making processes.
• Formal grievance process: Set up a clear, structured process to address favoritism complaints promptly and fairly.
• Promote transparency and accountability: Foster a culture where fairness and equal opportunities are integral to workplace operations.

How to prevent favoritism as a manager: 5 Strategies to try in 2025

By adopting the following strategies, managers can proactively prevent favoritism, creating a workplace culture that values fairness, equality, and professional growth for all employees in 2025 and beyond.

1. Establish transparent policies: Implement clear and transparent policies for performance evaluation, promotions, and opportunities. Ensure that these criteria are communicated effectively to all employees, leaving no room for ambiguity. Transparent guidelines help in fostering a fair and merit-based work environment.
2. Provide equal opportunities: Actively strive to provide equal opportunities for professional development and growth to motivate employees. Distribute challenging and special assignments, mentorship, social events, and training programs fairly among team members. This ensures that everyone has a chance to showcase their skills and contribute to the organization's success.
3. Encourage open communication: Create an environment where open communication is not only welcomed but encouraged. Foster a culture where employees feel comfortable discussing their concerns about favoritism. Regular check-ins, team meetings, and feedback sessions can provide platforms for dialogue and resolution.
4. Implement diversity and inclusion initiatives: Embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives to promote a culture that values differences. By celebrating diversity and actively working to eliminate biases, managers can contribute to a more inclusive workplace where employees are recognized and appreciated for their unique contributions.
5. Lead by example: Managers play a crucial role in setting the tone for the workplace culture. Demonstrate fairness and impartiality in decision-making processes. Avoid showcasing preferential treatment, and be mindful of personal biases. Leading by example helps establish a culture where merit and competence are valued above personal connections.

What are the three tips for handling favoritism as an employee?

By following these tips, you can keep your calm and manage workplace favoritism.

1. Focus on professionalism: Despite favoritism challenges, prioritize professionalism. Showcase your skills, deliver results, and consistently demonstrate your value through your work.
2. Seek feedback and clarification: Actively seek feedback on your performance and, if favoritism concerns arise, approach your manager or HR for clarification on decision-making processes.
3. Document achievements: Maintain a record of your accomplishments and positive feedback. This documentation can be valuable during performance reviews, demonstrating your contributions and ensuring recognition despite potential favoritism.

Top 10 signs to detect favoritism in the workplace

The following signs are tell-tell signs of favoritism in your workplace.

1. Unequal opportunities: Noticeable disparities in task assignments, projects, or opportunities, with certain individuals consistently receiving more challenging or high-profile assignments.
2. Promotions based on personal connections: Regular instances where promotions or career advancements seem to align more with personal relationships than merit or qualifications.
3. Exclusive access: Some employees consistently have exclusive access to decision-makers or key information, leading to a perception of unfair preferential treatment.
4. Inconsistent application of rules: A noticeable lack of consistency in the enforcement of workplace rules and policies, with exceptions made for certain individuals.
5. Lack of transparency: Decisions about promotions, projects, or rewards are made with minimal transparency, leaving employees uninformed about the rationale behind choices.
6. Isolation of non-favored employees: Non-favored employees may feel isolated or excluded from important discussions, events, or social gatherings within the workplace.
7. Unjust recognition: Recognition and praise are disproportionately directed towards a specific group of employees, regardless of their actual contributions or achievements.
8. Frequent conflicts of interest: Regular instances where decision-makers have personal relationships with those benefiting from their decisions, creating conflicts of interest.
9. Selective information sharing: Key information about projects, opportunities, or organizational changes is selectively shared with a chosen few, excluding other deserving team members.
10. Perceived bias in feedback: Non-favored employees consistently receive less constructive feedback or face unwarranted criticism, contributing to a negative perception of favoritism in performance evaluations.

How managers can stop favoritism?

Managers play a pivotal role in curbing favoritism and ensuring that all employees are treated equitably. Here are seven strategies that managers can implement to combat favoritism effectively:

• Establish clear criteria: Develop and communicate clear, objective criteria for performance evaluations, promotions, and rewards. By ensuring that decisions are based on transparent metrics rather than subjective opinions, managers can minimize the potential for favoritism.
• Implement standardized processes: Standardize processes for decision-making and resource allocation. Using consistent procedures for assigning tasks, evaluating performance, and making promotional decisions helps ensure fairness and reduces the likelihood of bias.
• Encourage open communication: Foster an environment where employees feel comfortable expressing concerns and providing feedback. Regularly solicit input from team members about their perceptions of fairness and address any issues promptly.
• Provide training: Offer training on diversity, equity, and inclusion for all managers and staff. Education on unconscious bias and inclusive practices can help mitigate favoritism and promote a more equitable workplace.
• Promote transparency: Ensure transparency in decision-making processes. When employees understand the rationale behind decisions and see that they are based on merit, trust in leadership is strengthened, and favoritism is less likely to occur.
• Monitor and review decisions: Regularly review decisions related to promotions, raises, and project assignments to ensure they align with established criteria and standards. Conducting audits can help identify and address any instances of favoritism.
• Foster a collaborative culture: Encourage teamwork and collaboration among employees. A culture that values collective achievement and mutual respect can reduce individual biases and promote fairness in team dynamics.

How to promote fairness in the workplace?

Promoting fairness in the workplace is essential to reducing corporate favoritism and ensuring equal opportunities for all employees.

• Develop objective performance metrics: Establishing measurable performance indicators ensures fair evaluations based on merit, helping to address why do people show favoritism and preventing employee favoritism at work. Clear criteria promote transparency and accountability.
• Encourage cross-functional collaboration: Rotating employees across teams helps break silos and ensures equal opportunities, offering solutions to favoritism in the workplace by reducing personal biases and familiarity-based advantages. This fosters a more inclusive environment.
• Implement blind evaluation processes: Removing identifiable details in promotions and appraisals can prevent unconscious bias and address signs of favoritism, providing an effective approach to how to prevent favoritism in the workplace through objective decision-making.
• Standardize recognition programs: Structured recognition frameworks ensure fair rewards based on contributions, helping organizations avoid favoritism in the workplace and dispelling perceptions of corporate favoritism in reward systems.
• Promote equitable mentorship opportunities: Offering mentorship to all employees helps eliminate favoritism and aligns with the definition of favoritism, ensuring that growth opportunities are accessible to everyone, not just a select few.
• Encourage peer feedback: 360-degree feedback fosters transparency and serves as a solution to why do managers play favorites, offering balanced perspectives on performance. This helps organizations detect and address favoritism proactively.
• Ensure pay equity audits: Regular salary reviews help identify biases and provide insights into how to deal with favoritism, promoting fairness in compensation and minimizing favoritism risks.

Role of manager effectiveness surveys in identifying and curbing favoritism

Manager effectiveness surveys provide a valuable tool for identifying and addressing favoritism in the workplace by gathering employee feedback on managerial behavior. Here’s how they contribute to a fair work environment:

• Confidential feedback collection: Surveys allow employees to anonymously express concerns about favoritism and biases without fear of retaliation.
• Identifying patterns: Analyzing survey responses helps uncover trends of unequal treatment and assess their impact on morale and engagement.
• Evaluating fairness and transparency: Tailored questions can measure employee perceptions of fairness in decision-making and equal opportunity distribution.
• Enabling targeted action: Survey insights help organizations implement interventions such as leadership training, policy adjustments, or development programs.
• Promoting accountability: Regular surveys reinforce a culture of transparency and hold managers accountable for their actions.
• Preventing future favoritism: Proactive use of surveys helps organizations address favoritism before it becomes a larger issue.

Examples of favoritism in the workplace

These scenarios are not hard to spot and are often how favoritism is promoted in organizations.

• Promotion of friends over merit: When a manager consistently promotes or favors friends within the team, regardless of their qualifications or job performance, it creates a perception of bias and undermines the merit-based promotion system.
• Exclusive project assignments: Assigning high-impact projects or desirable assignments consistently to a particular individual, often due to personal connections rather than a fair evaluation of skills and competence.
• Preferential treatment in workload: Allotting lighter workloads, flexible schedules, pay raises, or special considerations to certain employees based on personal relationships rather than equal distribution of responsibilities and opportunities.
• Undue recognition and praise: Singling out specific individuals for excessive praise and recognition, irrespective of their actual contributions, while overlooking the achievements of other deserving team members.
• Frequent socializing with select employees: When managers consistently spend time outside of work with certain employees—whether through lunches, informal meetings, or social events—it can create the perception of favoritism and exclusion among other team members.
• Selective enforcement of policies: When some employees are held strictly accountable for company rules, while others are allowed to bend or break them without consequences, it creates a culture of unfairness and resentment.
• Providing inside information: Favoring certain employees by giving them advance notice of upcoming changes, promotions, or business strategies, giving them an unfair advantage over their colleagues.
• Limited access to growth opportunities: When certain employees are consistently recommended for training programs, mentorship, or leadership development initiatives based on personal favoritism rather than potential and performance.
• Unbalanced delegation of responsibilities: Assigning high-visibility tasks or leadership roles to a select few while others are left with routine, less impactful work, limiting their growth and exposure within the company.
• Ignoring feedback from non-favored employees: When a manager gives more weight to ideas and suggestions from favored employees while dismissing or overlooking input from others, leading to a lack of diversity in decision-making.
• Shielding favored employees from criticism: Protecting certain employees from negative feedback or performance evaluations, even when their work falls below expectations, while holding others to stricter standards.

Conclusion

Favoritism in the workplace remains a pervasive issue with far-reaching, negative consequences everywhere. Recognizing the signs, addressing root causes, and implementing preventive measures are essential steps.

By leveraging tools like CultureMonkey, organizations can gain valuable insights into employee perceptions, identify favoritism trends, and take data-driven actions to foster fairness. Through transparent policies, open communication, and a commitment to merit-based growth, companies can build a culture that prioritizes performance over personal connections, ensuring a more inclusive and thriving workplace.

FAQs

1. Why is there favoritism in the workplace?

Favoritism often arises due to personal biases, such as managers' preferences for employees they have personal relationships with or those who share similar characteristics. Additionally, favoritism can stem from subjective judgments of employee performance, or perceived competence. These factors create an environment where certain employees receive preferential treatment over others, leading to feelings of inequality and discontent among the workforce.

2. Is favoritism a form of discrimination?

Yes, favoritism can indeed be a form of discrimination in the workplace. When employees are either treated fairly or unfairly based on personal preferences rather than merit or objective criteria, it perpetuates inequality and undermines the principles of fairness and equal opportunity. Favoritism can result in disadvantages for non-favored employees, impacting their career advancement, job satisfaction, and overall well-being.

3. How can employees identify favoritism in the workplace?

Employees can identify favoritism by observing patterns of preferential treatment, such as certain individuals consistently receiving better opportunities, promotions, or recognition without clear justification based on performance or qualifications. They can also look for signs of bias in decision-making processes, such as inconsistent application of policies or managers showing undue leniency towards specific employees.

4. How can organizations address favoritism and promote fairness in the workplace?

Organizations can address favoritism by implementing transparent and merit-based systems for promotions, assignments, and rewards. Providing training on unconscious bias awareness to managers and employees can help mitigate the impact of personal prejudices. Additionally, fostering a culture of openness and accountability where feedback is encouraged can promote fairness and equal treatment for all employees.

5. How does favoritism impact diversity and inclusion efforts within organizations?

Favoritism undermines diversity and inclusion efforts by perpetuating inequalities and limiting opportunities for underrepresented groups. When certain individuals receive preferential treatment based on personal relationships or similarities, it hinders the advancement of diverse talent and creates barriers to inclusion. Addressing favoritism is essential for creating a more equitable workplace where all employees feel valued and have equal opportunities for growth and success.

6. What can leaders do to prevent favoritism?

Leaders can prevent favoritism by establishing transparent, merit-based decision-making processes for promotions, assignments, and rewards. Regular training on unconscious bias, open communication, and fair performance evaluations are essential. Encouraging inclusivity, seeking diverse perspectives, and treating all employees equitably fosters trust and ensures a level playing field, promoting a healthier, more productive workplace environment.

7. How does favoritism affect employee morale?

Favoritism negatively impacts employee morale by fostering resentment, mistrust, and feelings of exclusion among non-favored employees. It creates an environment where employees feel undervalued and overlooked, reducing motivation, engagement, and overall job satisfaction. This leads to higher turnover rates, lower productivity, and a toxic culture that diminishes teamwork and organizational success.