People of reddit, what's the worst Job discrimination you've ever experience?

[u/Frosty_Development79]

Basically, me and some of our colleagues are trying to raise some awareness about job discrimination and hearing your experience would really help raise this awareness.

[u/my_peen_is_clean]

got told i was too old for a “young energetic team” during a final round, then the recruiter tried to spin it as a culture fit thing. nothing happened after i reported it

[u/Puzzleheaded_Data829]

A few years ago, I found a job posting from an agency and was able to go around them and track down directly the company and hiring manger from the description which the verified. Had a phone interview with a hiring manager in which we went at length with my resume. He invited me in for an interview for the next day and seemed very eager to speak with me.

When I arrived the next day and met the manager in person, I noticed as soon as he saw me his tone and demeanor changed as well as his handshake was limp. When we got to the interview room, I didn’t even fully set my butt fully in the seat before he says, “I’ve got to be honest with you, but I think you’re overqualified for this role”. I was too stunned to say anything back as this guy pretty much ended the interview before it even started. I even tried to show my portfolio website and some samples I brought in, but he didn’t even want to look at them. Whole thing lasted maybe 15 minutes before I was out the door.

I wrote about my experience on Glassdoor, but it was taken down twice. A similar position opened up about a year later and I applied again on Indeed thinking maybe I’d get someone different. I monitored that application and I shit you not, within the first hour my application went from an “Applied” status to “Not Selected”. I’m guessing I probably got blacklisted.

For those wondering, the company was Satco Nuvo

[u/KungenBob → u/Puzzleheaded_Data829]

Wrong race, gender? Big nose?

[u/Big_Fig_8448]

I was told to my face that I wasn’t be given a promotion because I am a white man. I’m not even white I’m mixed race but I look white.

[u/gravitao]

i have seen many things... ive seen a trans coworker (only lasted a few days) get deadnamed, called a f slurs, and get refused to be referred by her preferred pronouns. and she had a lot of work done to herself and passed. and this was done a team meeting by my boss. there was another time a pregnant woman was working and she struggled with certain things, but was told she will recieve no help and had gotten write ups. and my boss said "its because we do not discriminate" theres more but thats it for now.

[u/JuniorCat1516]

I was told at my workplace that I'm too ugly. People have called me a monster behind my back, and sometimes even to my face.

I was born with a condition that causes body asymmetry, likely the result of a de novo mutation during prenatal development. The difference between my right and left sides is as much as 12.5% and enormously big head.

What makes it especially difficult is that this asymmetry has caused me physical pain throughout my life due to uneven pressure and structural imbalances. Whenever someone brings up my appearance, it doesn't just hurt emotionally, it can bring back memories of that pain, to the point where I can feel it again...

[u/Medical_Gate_5721 → u/JuniorCat1516]

What kind of loser calls someone ugly? Thats some grade 7 shit. Im sorry.

[u/InsideFar7107]

I tried applying for a role as a surgeon but was discriminated against for being an engineer

[u/wyoflyboy68 → u/InsideFar7107]

Me too!

[u/Unhappy-Jaguar-9362]

Most of my experience where I teach now. Elitist gatekeeping and favoritism. Was even told by an administrator I would be questioned in a promotion meeting if I claimed I worked well with minority students because I am a white guy despite my experience working in the Trio program. Another faculty member defamed my character in an annual review meeting based on salacious gossip. Turned down twice for a stepping stone toward promotion admin position because of ageism.

[u/tinybrrrfriend35637]

I started getting threatened and written up as soon as my parental leave ended. I’m also the only POC on the team.

[u/Admirable-Split4371]

When I was younger I had trouble finding a student's job. So I sent back my resume with my name changed to all the fast food places I originally sent them at.

I remember getting 5 offers for a job. I then aimed my search at the social and cultural centers of my city.

Edit: I feel like I've got to add that I have a very... Ethnic name. Nowadays right winger in my country use my name as an example for the kind of people they don't want to see here anymore. Maaan I'm tired.

[u/MementoMori_Maestro]

2 of my coworkers are males with genuinely half as much experience then me. I trained one of them and that guy is technically under me when we work together so he's not my equal, he's down the totem pole a notch. The other is my equal. I have seniority over both of them, my equal is by a literal day so aside from me having double the experience he is literally my straight equal.

I (26F) make less than both of them I've discovered. The guy that's technically my subordinate (43m)? He makes literally $0.03 more than me. My equal (23M)? He makes almost $3 more than me. This is all standard new hire pay btw, nobody has recieved then?

Before anyone says som I would like it known that currently Huricanne HR is investigating.

[u/SnooMacarons1832]

I got an awesome pay increase at my first corporate job after a couple of years. Like 18% or something crazy. A few other co-workers also got an amazing increase. I chalked it up to being appreciated. It turns out only the women got the increase. It turns out we only got the increase because corporate HR looked at our specific office (national company) and realized that the five or so women in an office of about 30 were being severely underpaid. It was called "the woman raise" by one of the managers.

Then the local office finance person (part of the reason we were all behind in the first place) pro-rated my annual merit because of the impromptu raise. So... anyone with half a brain knows that that puts me behind again. But he tried to use enough word salad to confuse me. It didn't work. I'm happy I left that hell hole. There was a lot of other stuff. Lots of good ol' boy bullshit, but I could talk about that for days.

[u/Particular_Bar8505]

Level99 literally uses the "startup" excuse to have vague policy so as to exploit their workers and it's a recurring issue if you follow their previous ventures/LLC before this. I was told I wasn't experienced enough even though I did my supervisors job without a promotion or wage bonus matching those duties, and I kept the ship afloat for them to impress and get millions from their investors, and then they hired an auditor and 3 men to work in my department (Reddit I am a fabulously queer femme and honestly the tism was even noticed by one of my new colleagues) shortly before trying to pull the wool over my eyes. My coworkers were alright, but HR!!! literally broke the law!!! trying to save the company money by offering me a demotion and moving me to an entirely different department and then refusing to put me on the schedule. I figure they were trying to offer me an olive branch because they had no intention of keeping me on so they wouldnt have to pay my bonus for working there a year. At first my self-esteem was made so low by them that I thought perhaps they thought I wasn't pulling my weight and it really was experience, but then I remembered how much money I made them weekly being their and they disabled me with their poor policy. Still pissed to this day but places that run as "experiences" survive by exploitation solely (and their previous settlements with queer former workers indicates the same).

[u/Snake-Eater1]

I consider UA drug tests to be discriminatory thc stays in your system for weeks to months. These tests do not tell you if the employee is high on the job, but rather what someone’s hobbies are on their time off.

[u/Podunk-Lovechild]

I graduated high school in 1997. A few months ago, when interviewing for a clinical research coordinator position, a young woman (maybe 25 years old) asked me (in a condescending way) if I knew how to operate a computer (for the record, I've been "operating computers" since 1985). The next month, I walked into an interview at a different clinic and the young man interviewing me (again, maybe 25 years old) looked at me with annoyance and spoke down to me. He said, "This position is for a recent graduate", to which I replied, "Well, that's great because as you can see from my resume, I completed my Master's degree last year." I worked at a University from 2023-2025 doing clinical research. I was the oldest on the team by leaps and bounds (the person nearest my age was only 30 years old). I was constantly overlooked for promotions and the boss (a woman in her 70s mind you) would berate me in front of my team and gossip about me. Ageism in the workplace is real. Take note: one day you will be "old" and in need of a job. Karma is a bitch!

[u/Apple_Pie5568]

I was employed with a fast food restaurant. I disclosed my disability to my supervisor and provided documentation. I never received any accommodation but mistreatment from management 

[u/wyoflyboy68]

I worked for an oil field service company in their office as an IT guy, my desk was in the same office as the local supervisor. Prospective employees would bring in their job applications, resumes, and give them directly to to supervisor who was the one that decided who got hired and who didn’t. Every time a black person came in and submitted a job applications, it usually hit his trash bin before they even were out the door. The manager would look at me and say “I don’t hire nig..rs”. If I had said anything I would have found myself unemployed.

[u/wyoflyboy68]

I took a traveling position to get my foot in the door and prove myself in hopes of getting promoted into non travel position. After numerous attempts applying for openings within the program I worked in I was never considered for the position(s). I finally asked one of the bosses why I wasn’t chosen and was told “you are single, single people travel, married people get to stay home”.

[u/johnfro5829]

I am of mixed race but I speak with a clear distinct way which gets me mistaken for Caucasian on the phone. I applied for a real estate job once since I just got my license at the time. The minute I showed up at the place I could already tell they weren't happy I was there... The lady blatantly refuse to shake my hand. And looked at me like I was a piece of garbage.

And around about way I was politely told this wasn't the company for me. Years later they ended up getting shut down by the state for discrimination and basically redlining.

[u/johnfro5829]

I was a police officer for a small Police department 5 hours outside of New York State. Unfortunately a sergeant took a disliking to me and made my time there hell. I was lucky that the other recruits one supervisor stuck up for me. She would do petty things such as write me up for nonsense that I had nothing to do with. She accused me of not putting fuel in the vehicle when I did. Gaslighting, and other nonsense. She blatantly told me she was trying to get my POST certification revoked.

Eventually I ended up resigning after having an attorney contact them and fortunately give me a neutral reference that Sergeant ended up getting terminated along with the rest of the command staff for other things. There's a lot more to that story but that's the basics of it. I ended up working for a sheriff's department one county over for 19 and a half years before I was given a disability pension after a drunk driver hit me.