For employees and potential employees with marginalized identities in Chicago, IL, bigotry, bias, and harassment are unfortunately common. People of Color, women and gender-non-conforming people, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, older people, immigrants, and members of minority religious groups are often the target of these actions and attitudes. It is endemic, and it can be deeply destructive to the lives of the people and communities it is inflicted upon.

Workplace discrimination and unfair treatment can also happen to people of all demographics in retaliation for actions the higher-ups in a workplace want to punish. There are many sources of this type of retaliatory discrimination—including but certainly not limited to whistleblowing, trying to form a union, filing workers compensation claims, reporting bad actors, and generally refusing to accept or allow an employer to violate your reasonable boundaries and rights.

To those who are the targets of this sort of treatment, the effects can be severe and long-lasting. In addition to any professional harm it might cause, both in your current position and beyond, surviving acute discrimination or harassment can lead to more wide-reaching social, personal, psychological, and economic damages. It can harm a person’s worldview, their physical and psychological health, their wellbeing, their relationships, and their ability to reach their full potential in all areas of their lives.