Ah yes. That familiar feeling that comes around every December. Students anxiously refresh their phones. Teachers hold their breath. Parents hover over their children in a panicked silence. The day high school results and ATARs are released has quickly become among the most emotionally charged days on the Australian calendar. The moment the entirety of a student’s academic career is reduced into a singular figure. Determining scholarships, tertiary education offers and a teenager’s whole sense of personal worth. A feeling eerily similar to workplace pressure.
However, the upsetting truth is that this culture of measurement does not end when high school does. It merely evolves. Across the nation, in all workplaces, employers rank, compare and review employees in similar ways. The same system that makes students question their worth after receiving their ATARs is what makes modern day workers feel disposable and replaceable.
The workplace becomes the matured version of a high school classroom. But with much higher stakes. The emotional damage caused by the comparison and humiliation in education reappears later in life. In the form of workplace bullying, harassment, discrimination and unfair dismissal.
For the majority of Australians, high school results are their first, early exposure to what will inevitably become a lifetime full of external judgement. When the number on a page symbolises their success or failure. In the workplace, the number simply just changes form. Managers replaces ATARs with KPIs, sales targets and performance reviews.
You may be under the impression that after receiving your high school certificate you will no longer be sitting a written exam anymore, however, your worth is still being graded. A report card transforms into a quarterly review. Study scores turn into sales targets. And mark deductions become an email about not “meeting expectations.”
Just as in the education system, the language of performance quickly becomes the language of punishment. If you are the victim of constant criticism of “not meeting targets,” “underperforming” and “failing to fit into team culture,” this disparagement quickly becomes weaponised. This performance management is not necessarily about improvement. It is often a slow path to your dismissal.
Pursuant to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), being dismissed due to perceived poor performance, without any genuine support or warning, can constitute an unfair dismissal. Your employer may have weaponised performance review into disciplinary action. Or forced you out under the guise of “improvement.” This is not feedback, it is a potential breach of your rights as an employee.
Just as every school has its “top students,” every workplace has its “star employees.” These systems condition us from a young age to perceive this competition as healthy. That those who deserve the highest academic scores are somehow entitled to the best opportunities. However, what happens when this mindset seeps into the workplace is dangerous. Favoritism, humiliation and exclusion.
You will recall from your school days, that teachers often rewarded the same handful of students in a circular motion. Over and over again. In the workplace, your employers are doing the same. Certain employees are provided with greater flexibility, the sought after shifts and more frequent praise. While employers criticise, ignore and set others up for failure.
When this system of preference becomes linked to particular personal characteristics, it becomes linked to discrimination as per Australian law. Such as gender, disability, race, sexuality or family responsibilities. It is prohibited for employers to treat workers differently on the basis of these grounds, pursuant to the Fair Work Act and numerous state equal opportunity laws.
Have you ever been the victim of exclusion from meetings, or passed over for a promotion you are qualified for? Felt judged on the basis of who you are rather than what you do? It is not personal politics. It is unlawful conduct. Whether it be in school, or later in life in the workplace, we all deserve to be judged on merit, not on biases. Equality is not a privilege. It is a right.
During the release of ATAR week, social media quickly becomes a scoreboard. As students post and boast their ATARs, did not meet expectations begin to feel invisible.
This same process of public comparison takes place daily in the workplace. As managers email about “top performers,” or publish the “sales leaderboards.” Under the guise of motivation, employers breed a sense of anxiety and competition. Which they then used as a system for public shaming.
Often this constant sense of comparison can become a medium for humiliation and result in sustained psychological workplace pressure. This can likely amount to workplace bullying. As defined by the Fair Work Commission as unreasonable behaviour which amounts in a risk to health and safety. Particularly perpetrated in a repeated manner. Public humiliation, unreasonable expectations and a sense of isolation are not markers of a culture of performance. It is a toxic workplace. And you possess the right to challenge it.
We all know that high school can be brutal. A period of time marked by whispers, cruelty and exclusion. A misguided assumption exists that this behaviour disappears when graduation is over. However, it does not. It merely becomes better dressed.
The workplace can be seen as a microcosm for the schoolyard. Workplace harassment will often mirror schoolyard bullying. However, this time, HR forms are attached. This can look like constant criticism of your work or being left out of group emails. Gossip about your personal life or jokes that leave you feeling slightly on edge.
Sound familiar? This is harassment. And it is unlawful. Your employer is legally obliged to provide you with a workplace rid of hostility and intimidation. You are entitled to attend the office every day and feel you are in a safe environment. In 2022, the Respect@Work reforms were introduced. These place a positive duty on all employers to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment before it happens. Not just after a complaint is lodged.
And harassment is not always sexual. Verbal, social, psychological and digital harassment is just as valid. As a student can be tormented by their peers, an employee can be tormented by colleagues or even management. Often in a more subtle, but equally damaging way. Walking into the workplace with a knot in your stomach every day is not professionalism. It is undue harm. And you deserve better.
During ATAR results season, the headlines of every media outlets celebrate our nation’s highest achievers. Students scour The nationally accessible high school Honour Roll to see who outperformed who. But what no one discusses is the student who does not receive the results they had hoped for. And how these students the system has conditioned to see themselves as less.
This is a brutal cycle which carries on into the workplace. The obsession with “top performers” will always turn into cruelty. Often employers will target the underperforming staff. They will overburden them with an impossible workload or constant micromanagement. Eventually informing them, “this isn’t working out.” This is the beginning of a constructive dismissal. When management makes the workplace conditions so unbearable and intolerable, that an employee is forced to resign.
If your workplace has made your position untenable, being pushed to quit is not a genuine resignation. This is an unfair dismissal in disguise. Our advisors at Australian Workplace Discrimination Representatives are experts in recognising and dealing with these patterns of constructive dismissals. We will assist you in determining whether your so called “resignation” is truly a dismissal. And helping you obtain your entitled reinstatement of potential compensation.
In school, questioning a grade would have you labelled as the “difficult student.” This matures into the workplace, where questioning a decision will have you perceived as the “difficult employee.”
It’s all too common for workers to be punished for doing the right thing. Whether it be reporting bullying, exposing payment issues or raising questions around unsafe practices. The Fair Work Act deems this to be adverse action. Your employer cannot take negative action against you for merely exercising a workplace right.
This is a legal protection which forms the basis of our nation’s general protections framework. If you have faced reduced hours, minimised responsibilities or dismissal after making a complaint, your employer has breached this law. There is a strict 21-day limit to lodge a general protections claim after dismissal. Our team will guide you through every step.
Whether it be ATARs or annual reviews, the feeling is the same. The bottomless pit of anxiety, workplace pressure and the fear of not being good enough. Workers in modern-day Australia experience unprecedented levels of mental health strain from the workplace due to the heightening expectations to perform, impress and never falter. This leads to burnout, insomnia and long-term psychological harm.
Employers possess a duty of care, just as educators do, to safeguard their employees’ mental health. As per workplace safety laws. When stress, overworking complaints or bullying allegations go ignored, they are breaching that duty. And subsequently exposing themselves to workers’ compensation claims and Fair Work Commission applications.
If your workplace is breaking you down, don’t wait until you reach your breaking point. At Australian Workplace Discrimination Representatives, we want to help you, by taking early action. Whether through a bullying or harassment application, a general protections claim or negotiating an exit strategy on your behalf. No one should have to make sacrifices to their mental health for job security. It is your entitlement to protect both.
Society presents the ATAR system as a meritocracy. An idea built on the age-old belief that hard work always leads to reward. However, anyone who has lived long enough will be well aware that one’s merit and hard work are not necessarily determinative of success.
It is in the workplace that this myth becomes even more dangerous. Managements labels older workers as being “stuck in their ways.” Whilst their younger counterparts are dismissed as “inexperienced.” Women returning from parental leave are perceived as “not as committed.” And employees with disabilities are denied valuable opportunities because they “will not keep up.” These are not lawful opinions. They are forms of workplace discrimination. The Fair Work Act prohibits them.
All workers deserve equal access to promotions, training and most importantly, respect. And in Australia, the law enshrines this equal access. If bias has limited your career progression, allow us to file a general protections claim or discrimination claim to restore fairness to your workplace. We know you have earned your place. Do not allow bias to take it from you.
Every year as results week rolls around, two parallel reactions flood social media. Pride and pain. Revealing the value our society attaches to comparison. Whether it be a teenager’s ATAR or an employee’s annual output the message remains the same. Your worth is conditional. Workplace pressure thrives on this system of conditionality. “As long as you hit your targets.” “If you don’t cause any problems.” “So long as you keep quiet.” At Australian Workplace Discrimination Representatives, we seek to remind you, and all workers nationwide, that your rights are not conditional. You have them guaranteed to you, by law.
Imagine a workplace where employment reviews were more like report cards that measured respect, fairness and wellbeing. Rather than sales figures and profit margins. Imagine a world where no number measured your value. Imagine if speaking up about your mistreatment earned praise instead of punishment.
This is the kind of future we are attempting to build. That Australian workplace laws are trying to build. And it all begins with brave employees willing to challenge the silence. We want to help you. If you have been mistreated, bullied, unfairly dismissed or discriminated against. Allow us to help you reclaim your voice.
Just like the teenagers anxiously awaiting their results and ATARs, it will always take courage to face criticism. But this courage should never be accompanied by punishment.
Read more: Workplace Bullying: Is There a Solution?
So, this results season, whilst our nation’s teens open envelopes and refresh portals, attempt to reflect on your own working life. Do you feel constantly criticised and compared? Does management overlook your effort? Have they pushed you out? Silenced you? Broken down? If this is the case, it is time to seek advice.
We are not lawyers, we are workplace advisors and influencers who have helped thousands of Australians stand up to unfair treatment and reclaim their rights.
Contact us today on 1800 333 666.
Your results do not define you and neither should your employer.
