Fairness & management

Problems about how schedules and opportunities are shared between workers, and how management decisions show up.

• Why Does My Restaurant Manager Play Favorites?
  What feels like favoritism can come from several different mechanisms: personal relationships, inconsistent management, differences in availability or role, performance and reliability, seniority, or a manager repeatedly giving preferred workers the benefit of the doubt. The useful distinction is not whether two employees are treated differently once, but whether similarly situated workers repeatedly receive different treatment without a clear job-related explanation. Favoritism by itself is not automatically unlawful under federal employment law; the legal question changes if different treatment is tied to a protected characteristic or to retaliation for protected activity. This page focuses on observable patterns rather than guessing a manager's motive.