Now is not the time to kill your diversity program. According to new research from George Mason University, workplace discrimination actually increases in an economic downturn. A recent study by Eden King, an assistant professor of psychology at the Fairfax, Virginia, college, found that competition for fewer jobs and resources often forces minority groups to the outside.

For instance, King and her coresearchers found that when white women and men were told that the economy was going to tank and were then asked to evaluate four equally qualified job candidates, the majority selected the white male candidate. When they were told that the economy would improve, however, they tended to favor the female Hispanic candidate.

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Managers often hire people who mirror them behaviorally; when they don’t, they tend to get frustrated and criticize the employee because of his or her work style. Performance-based concerns are valid, but if the employee is “getting the job done,” it’s a different matter. Diverse work styles and thought processes, say experts, can offer a team a broader perspective and better solutions.

One of the most underutilized types of employee? Introverts, says Jennifer Kahnweiler, author of The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength. “With an appetite for talk and attention, extroverts dominate the workplace,” she says. “Meanwhile, introverts — with their quiet smarts and successes — sit on the professional sidelines, routinely ignored, overlooked, and misunderstood.”

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that workplace discrimination charge filings increased 15 percent last year to an unprecedented level of 95,402. While the agency stated that it didn’t know if this was a trend, it was an indication of a persistent problem.

All of the main categories of charge filings with the EEOC increased, but the number of charges based on age and retaliation had the largest annual increase. In its report, the EEOC stated that the increase in filings may be attributable to many factors, “including economic conditions, increased diversity, and demographic shifts in the labor force, employees’ greater awareness of the law, the EEOC’s focus on systemic litigation and changes to EEOC’s intake practices.”

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The Second Appellate Division of the California Court of Appeal recently upheld a jury verdict exceeding $1.1 million against the Pasadena Fire Department for subjecting a firefighter to a fitness-for-duty examination and retiring him, failing to provide a reasonable accommodation for his perceived disability, and failing to engage in an interactive process.

Firefighter Loses Racial Harassment Lawsuit . . .

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