Microaggressions at Work: Awareness Is Not Enough

 

Microaggressions are often described as “subtle verbal, behavioral, or environmental slights directed toward members of marginalized groups”. They may be intentional, but very often they are not.

And perhaps that's what makes them so complicated.

Most people don't come to work thinking, “How can I make one of my coworkers uncomfortable today?”

Yet seemingly small comments, assumptions, jokes, interruptions, exclusions, or differences in how people are treated can accumulate over time. What appears insignificant to the person doing it may feel very different to the person experiencing it repeatedly. Research and mental-health resources associate repeated microaggressions with stress, fatigue, decreased motivation, mistrust, and professional consequences. https://mhanational.org/resources/microaggressions

That is a tiring way to spend your workday, especially when you actually like people and want to enjoy collaborating with them.

I don't think the solution is to spend our careers looking for reasons to be offended. Nor is the solution to tell people: "You're being too sensitive".  There must be something more productive in between.

What Can Organizations Actually Do?

Start by becoming curious about your own workplace. Who gets interrupted? Whose expertise is routinely questioned? Who gets described as aggressive, emotional, difficult, or intimidating for behavior considered confident or assertive in someone else? Who gets invited into informal conversations where relationships and opportunities are created? Who is constantly asked to explain their background?

And perhaps most importantly:

Do you understand the cultural norms of your organization, and how those norms may be experienced by people who aren't part of the majority culture?

This doesn't require organizations to police every conversation. It requires leaders to listen, observe patterns, create room for feedback, and respond without immediately becoming defensive.

And employees have a role too.

When appropriate, we can ask: "What did you mean by that?".  We can explain impact without automatically assuming malicious intent. And when someone tells us that something we said or did affected them differently than we intended, we can resist the urge to defend ourselves at once.

Sometimes, the best response really is just: “I didn't realize that. Thank you for telling me”. Then learn from it and move forward. That's growth.

From Awareness to Culture

A healthy workplace isn't one where nobody ever says the wrong thing, because with human beings involved, that's probably impossible. A healthy workplace is one where people can address those moments, learn from them, adjust their behavior, and continue working together with dignity and mutual respect.

The goal shouldn't be creating workplaces where everyone is afraid of offending someone. The goal should be creating workplaces where people care enough about one another to listen when they do.

Leadership Reflection

Does your organization truly understand how its culture is experienced by everyone who works there, not just the people who naturally fit its dominant culture?

And when someone tells you something isn't working, what happens next?

Dr. Flavius Akerele III, EdD, MBA

#Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #Microaggressions #Inclusion #OrganizationalCulture #EmployeeExperience #Belonging #LeadershipDevelopment