There is favoritism around, either on the job, in school, or in your own family.  I never seen a job that doesn’t have some sort of favoritism.  It’s not right but it does happen.

A manager should treat all employees the same but somehow they choose to favored some over others.  Sometimes it’s their own family member.  Sometimes there are other reasons.

I have seen favoritism at both Kmart and at the Fargo Dome.

There are people at Kmart who gets away with certain things because they are favored.  I could go into details but I believe it is self-explanatory.

All I will say is this: those who are being favored are just good at brown-nosing the manager.  As my folks would say, (pardon my French here) “They got their nose up the manager rear end so far, if they turned quickly, it might twist right off.”

People like that I have very little respect for.  I can name names on those being favored but I won’t to protect the innocent.  I’m sure they know who they are.  I’m sure they know that other employees realize that they are being favored whether they see it or not.  I know that other employees sees favoritism going on.

Those who show favoritism believe that they are not doing it.  They believe that they treat everyone the same.  I got news for them.  We know!!

Even teachers show favoritism to their students.  They have their teacher’s pet.

Favoritism has been around for a long time.  It is even mentioned in the Bible in the story of Joseph.  Jacob favored Joseph over his other kids.  Joseph was one of the youngest and a son that Jacob had with his one true love, Rachel.  With that favoritism, Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many color to wear. In that time a coat was just a robe.  The other brothers were jealous of him, because of that favoritism.  They set out to kill him and instead they hid him in a deep hole and then eventually sold him into slavery.  We all know the rest of the story.  How Joseph thrive over the circumstances.

It happens in family as well.

The older kids in my family felt my folks favored Shirley and I over them.  They were jealous of us.

In that defense, we weren’t favored, we were just smarter.  We learned from them what not to do.  We learned from their mistakes.  Also I think when it came to us, since we were younger, our parents had more time to spend with us.  Remember, there was 7 kids in my family, and three of them were wild and wore our parents down.

We weren’t favored.  At least we didn’t see it that way.  We just knew what to do and what not to do.

I believe since the older kids felt that we were favored, their jealousy cause them to be extra hard on us after our folks died.

Even grandparents sometimes favored one grandchild over the others.  They may not see themselves doing it.  They’ll even say that they love all their grandkids the same.

I was told that my grandmother favored my cousin, Edwin and I  over her other grandkids.  The reason she favored Edwin was because of his own mother, Dorothy didn’t seems to care as much for him and his twin brother who died at age 12.

The reason, I was told why grandma favored me was because I reminded her of her oldest, John.  Also, I think, my mother and I lived with my grandmother until she died.  She took care of me while my mother worked.  Whatever I wanted, all I had to do was point to it and my grandmother would get it for me.  That was one of the I talked late in life.

My Aunt Dorothy even had her favorite.  She seems to favored her youngest and even favored his kids over her other grandkids.  There became a little rivalry between her grandkids because of it.  I won’t go into because you get the message.

My Aunt Millie even seems to favored her grandson over her other granddaughters.  There was a little jealousy in that family also. I think in that case, Millie had to take him under her wings because of the time of mother he had.

My mother always said that she had no favorites.  She loves all her kids and grandkids the same.  Even she was guilty of showing favoritism.  I mentioned how the older kids were jealous of Shirley and I.  Well even her other grandkids had jealousy as well.  Maybe in her defense, she just loved them differently.  They all had a special place in her heart.  She just saw her one granddaughter needing her more, like my grandmother saw me needing her more.

So you see there is favoritism on the job, in school and even in family.  Those who show favoritism doesn’t see themselves doing it.  Those who are being favored, doesn’t see themselves being favored.

One thing though:  God does not show favoritism.  He loves us all the same.  We are all equal in His eyes.

So you managers out there who are very much guilty of showing favoritism to certain people, here is my warning.  Remember, the other employees knows and do not approve.  As Taylor Swift new song states, “Look at what you made me do.”

There is one thing I learned how to overcome favoritism.  I was working at the Fargo Country Club.  There was this one co-workers who seems to get certain holiday off, like New Years Eve.  So this one time, I got smart, I put on the calendar way ahead of time to get it off before she did.  It seems you almost have to do that; especially when dealing with favoritism on the job.