Like their elders, young employees can be victims of stereotypes making their integration and evolution in the professional world more difficult. Women and minorities seem particularly affected.
by Hélène Pagesy
Estelle lived her first bad experience at the age of 21, during a year -round year in a publishing house. Upon his arrival, his internship supervisor toured the offices. They end up with the marketing pole, exclusively made up of women. “They observe me, grow and comment:” But is it legal? “Implied: I do not seem major, I should not work here.” Follow two years during which Estelle, ignored of all, has the feeling of being transparent.
Five years later, a master’s graduate, she was hired in another publishing house. “My manager presents me to the accounting service, where a man in his forties looks at me and answers, laughing:” Ah, I thought it was your granddaughter! “, Without talking to me, nor Even having said hello. In both cases, these sentences were pronounced in the tone of fun, without addressing me directly. People allowed themselves a comment on my appearance, as if I did not have been physically present in the same room, “she laments.
These painful experiences have completely lost Estelle her self -confidence and prompted it, to compensate, to work more than the others, in order to “seem credible”. According to a Survey of discrimination in employment conducted in 2021 with young workers from 18 years to 34 years by the Defender of Rights and the International Labor Organization (OIT), more than one in three claims to have experienced a situation of discrimination in the context of his job search or his career, against one in five people in the general population, with age (23%) as the second stigmatization criterion just after gender (27%) . “We knew that there was a great conscience of young people on these questions, but the reality is even more alarming than what one could imagine,” admits the rights defender, Claire Hédon, who commanded the investigation.
The barometer confirms that almost 90 % of respondents say they have already experienced a situation of devaluation during their professional life, mainly with an underestimation of their skills, a pressure to do more, and the to be entrusted with unnecessary and ungrateful tasks. A high level of studies does not allow you to be more protected. On the contrary, even: employees with a master or more equivalence would be the most exposed in the professional world (40.6 %).
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