Big wake-up call: discrimination at work: one in three affected

Accordingly, 31 percent of men and 36 percent of women surveyed said they had already been discriminated against at work. Of the 1,800 respondents, 200 were in Austria.

However, according to the analysis by consultancy and audit firm EY, only slightly less than half of them (49 percent) reported the incidents to managers or other contacts. Men (54 percent) take the step slightly more often than women (46 percent).

But the situation is not the same in every company: Especially when the management level is diverse and inclusive according to the employees, there are fewer experiences with discrimination (29 percent). With a management team that was not very diverse or not diverse at all, about 36 percent of respondents experienced discrimination, the report said.

According to EY, 1,800 employees in nine European countries were interviewed for the study. In concrete terms, there were 200 each from Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria and the Netherlands. According to EY, half of respondents are senior managers and half are non-managerial employees. The research took place online in September and October 2023.

Gap between management and employees
The analysis shows that managers rate their company significantly more positively when it comes to diversity, equality and inclusion. 63 percent of managers say their company has a culture of trust and transparency. Only 44 percent of non-managerial employees agreed with this.

“The fact that the assessments of different levels of employees in this country and in Europe differ so clearly and in so many categories when it comes to diversity, equality and inclusion clearly speaks to a disconnect between management and employees,” said Ev Bangemann, Member from the management of EY. The large number of people who have already felt discriminated against should be a wake-up call for employers “to promote real cultural change in the company that includes all employees.”