Discrimination cases are a powerful force that’s supposed to be for good. These lawsuits exist to try and balance out the battleground, ensuring employees have the rights they need to be able to work in a respectful environment.
Unfortunately, even if the case was false, or even if the company changes its ways: it’s nearly impossible to bounce back from this type of lawsuit. Here’s why.
Financial Loss
If you lose a lawsuit or settle out of court, you could see a major financial loss. For some smaller companies, it’s in the thousands, while some discrimination cases have gone into the hundreds of thousands. This is a lot of money that most businesses can’t afford to give away at the whim of an employee. This is hard to recover from, especially because you’ll have fewer employees and customers.
Public Opinion
Customers have always decided whether a company was worthy or not by determining where they spend their money. If your customer base finds out about a discrimination case, they may leave you for your competitor. This could be a major loss in finances. If the issue is bad enough, this might also make your suppliers cut ties or request a higher rate to keep working with you. These are devastating losses that no business wants to deal with.
Employee Opinions
A large problem with employment discrimination cases is that it can change how your other employees view you. Even if you win the case and show that you didn’t do anything wrong and that your company was behaving with the employee’s best interests in mind: it can still stain how your employees think of the company they work for. This can increase turnover and lead more employees to quit or stop working to the best of their abilities. This can seriously wound a business in the long run.
Opens You Up To Other Suits
One of the only things that are worse than a discrimination case is facing more than one. If you lost the case or paid a settlement instead of going to court: this can open you up to far more issues. Employees who have been discriminated against will realize this is their chance at getting recognition for what they went through, while others seeking a quick buck will see it as a chance to gain money from the company off of a threat. So it’s better never to face a lawsuit at all, even if you don’t go to court over it.
Fewer Job Applicants
If a company has a bad reputation because of a discrimination case: there’s a high chance that you’ll have far fewer applicants than you need when you’re hiring. This means fewer new employees and a harder time keeping a hold on the employees you do have. If your company can’t gain new employees, it can’t grow, which could lead to your business doors having to shut for good.
Train your employees well, treat everyone with dignity and respect, and you may be able to create a business that lives lawsuit-free.