When Management Becomes the Source of Discrimination

𝗜𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.
What the industry has been saying for years, then, is that the issue of discrimination in the private security sector has arrived from outside – the troublesome individual, the threatening mob, the uncomfortable event at work. Something the organization has to take in and manage.
Here’s the thing. The data points towards a very different reality.
Where did the discrimination come from? Of all the experiences reported, the largest proportion, by far, did not come from members of the public but from the individual's own manager – 38%, compared to 27% from members of the public and 22% from fellow employees.
This completely changes the debate.
If it comes from the public, the employee is supported by the organization. If it comes from the manager, the structure that is supposed to be protecting the employee becomes the cause of the problem, since that same manager controls the employee’s shifts, deployment, references, career development, and even any record of a discrimination complaint itself.
And now, here’s the second statistic. Of those workers who reported experiencing discrimination, just 38% had the problem sorted out completely.
The workforce is fast to realize that. 82% have experienced discrimination. 77% consider discrimination systematic in the industry.
This is no light matter of organizational culture. This is a fundamental failure of governance in the core of the professional body – the people responsible for protecting workers are the ones who do most harm, and the system designed to hold them accountable does not resolve even four out of every ten cases presented to it.
Professionalization is impossible as long as this continues to be the case.
For this reason, the Frontline Ceiling Project will look at manager accountability this week.

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