Research shows that many workplaces have since adopted different measures to ensure that they pass the equity and inclusion test. They have the right number of diverse employees as expected by the country’s laws.
Still, many organizations fail to realize that these efforts have not made employees from minority groups feel included. Some perpetrators happen to make subtle comments or act in ways that make workers from marginalized groups feel excluded, creating a situation of microaggressions in the workplace.
The key to building a culture of inclusivity in a company is for managers to directly address workplace microaggressions. In this blog, we’ll explore the different manifestations of workplace microaggressions, why they matter, and how organizational managers can take meaningful steps to recognize, respond to, and prevent them to create a truly inclusive environment.
Definition and Examples of Microaggressions
The term microaggressions has various definitions. One definition considers microaggressions as the subtle, often unintentional behaviors or comments rooted in unconscious bias that target others based on some identity aspects like race, gender, disability, age, or sexual orientation.
Microaggressions are also defined as subtle, intentional, but oftentimes unintentional behaviors or interactions that communicate some form of discrimination toward a marginalized group.
A third definition by Dr. Derald Wing Sue considers microaggressions as subtle behaviors that happen not just at work but also in everyday life. It can be through nonverbal, verbal, and environmental microaggressions that could be purposeful discriminatory actions or unintentional, and they communicate derogatory messages to the intended victim based on their marginalized group membership.
Unlike overt microaggressions, such as racial slurs, microaggressions are subtle and harder to recognize, as many people don’t realize they are committing them. Sometimes, they could be disguised as jokes, compliments, or subtle remarks.
Many individuals ignore the risks involved in ignoring microaggressions, even as they gradually chip away at a person’s sense of belonging and their mental health. While microaggressions also occur in everyday life, here are some of the most common examples of behaviors that count as workplace microaggressions.
- Identify microaggressions, such as co-workers asking an assistant professor at the university where they are really from, especially when the target is an employee of color.
- Gender-based microaggressions, such as dismissing ideas from female direct reports, while acknowledging the same from a male manager.
- Age-related microaggressions, for example, an incident where an employee is told they are too young, suggesting that they do not have enough experience to make an informed contribution to the topic.
- Co-workers at the university telling an employee with a known disability that they don’t really look disabled.
- Sexual orientation microaggressions, such as telling someone that they don’t really look gay.
- Favoring a certain demographic, such as preferring female nurses and making male nurses seem invisible, highlights the dynamics of gender at work.
- Racial microaggressions, for example, telling an individual of color that you didn’t expect them to have a British accent.
- Name-calling, for example, calling female colleagues names like ‘sweetheart’ or ‘love,’ undermines their professional standing.
The Psychological and Emotional Impact on Employees and Workplace Culture
Often, microaggressions in the workplace may seem small and harmless, but they are bound to leave behind psychological and emotional harm on employees as well as the workplace culture. These subtle acts can trigger different types of conflict, from interpersonal tension to broader cultural divides, which gradually affect both individual well-being and team dynamics.
Here are the different types of psychological impacts of workplace microaggressions on employees.
- Mental health issues: Experiencing microaggressions over a long period is known to cause higher levels of stress, anxiety, and even depression. These mental health harms are more pronounced for target employees from a marginalized group.
- Low self-esteem: Identity stereotypes can erode a person’s self-esteem as they feel isolated and exhibit avoidant behaviors, such as those aspects that an individual has no power to change, such as their skin color.
- Negative emotional states: Verbal microaggression triggers problem-focused thinking when a target person harbors negative emotional symptoms.
- Lost sense of belonging: Microaggressions make one feel alienated, which is when a person feels a sense of being ‘othered’ or not belonging.
In the same breath, microaggressions can have a wide range of emotional impacts on company employees as follows.
- Emotional distress: Microaggressions can cause significant emotional distress and harm a person’s well-being, especially when one is constantly targeted by belittling comments or behaviors.
- Emotional exhaustion: Dealing with microaggressions every day in a company can take an emotional toll on a person who must navigate and process microaggressions regularly, which also reduces their productivity.
- Isolation and exclusion: Microaggressions from co-workers make the intended victim adopt self-protective measures, such as withdrawing from groups or forming connections with others, or experience a sense of belonging.
- Questioning perceptions: Having to deal with microaggressions daily can make a targeted person question their own perceptions and judgment of their occurrences, which leads to self-doubt.
The risks involved with microaggressions don’t end at the individual level. They are known to affect the workplace culture in various ways, such as the following:
- Erosion of trust among team members: Microaggressions are often seen as avoidant behavior, and intended victims withdraw from teams just to feel safe. Microaggression erodes trust, which makes it hard to prioritize respect and productivity.
- Reduced collaboration: Microaggressions convey rudeness, causing tensions and disengagement by making some members feel stereotyped and excluded.
- Eroded diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts: When microaggression goes unchecked, they will eventually derail all the efforts made to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the workplace.
Strategies to Recognize and Reduce Microaggressions in the Workplace
Often, microaggressions in the workplace stem from unconscious biases and are often hard to recognize. There should be strategies in place to raise awareness that it exists in the first place.
Here are some ways that management can help your human resources recognize microaggressions in a virtual work environment.
- Subtle exclusion in group chats: When certain workers are regularly excluded from group Slack threads or not tagged in relevant messages, it is an example of digital microaggression.
- Delayed or ignored responses: When someone constantly ignores your emails or delays replying to them without proper justification, it is an example of microaggression, especially when it happens to a marginalized group.
- Message tones: Curt and short replies, such as ‘fine’ or ‘sure,’ without context, usually come off as dismissive, especially when it is not used uniformly across team members.
- Talking over someone on a video call: When an individual interrupts or talks over colleagues, especially junior workers, women, or individuals from marginalized groups, it is a common example of microaggression.
Microaggressions in the workplace are not easy to recognize as they show up in body language, verbal conversations, or workplace decisions. However, empathy, emotional intelligence, and awareness will help address microaggressions in a professional setting.
- Going with your gut feeling: If a comment or action leaves you with emotional discomfort consistently, especially after small interactions, recognize that as a sign of microaggression at work. You should trust your instincts.
- Repeated interruptions or dismissals: Microaggressions can show up as a pattern. You can ignore the first interruption, but constant interruption conveys rudeness, and it can signal deeper bias, especially if you are from a marginalized group.
- When you are singled out based on your identity: When someone calls attention to your gender, race, or identity in an unrelated conversation. For example, telling a colleague, “You people are so passionate,” is a red flag as it reinforces otherness.
- Stereotypes and assumptive language: In the workplace, you will notice an incident that uses phrases, such as “I didn’t expect you to…” or “You must be…” in conversations. These phrases reflect assumptions that signal the existence of deeply ingrained societal biases. They become microaggressions when they are tied to one’s roles, skills, or communication styles.
- Nonverbal cues: Eyerolling, consistent avoidance of one’s input, or sighing are nonverbal behaviors that may seem harmless, but they convey rudeness and are just as harmful as verbal microaggressions.
In addition to recognizing microaggressions as exhibited by others, it is your job to recognize your own microaggressions as well. Here’s how to recognize your own biases.
- You should notice that others feel uncomfortable, especially when they suddenly go quiet or tense up. It shows you that you have crossed the line.
- Rethink about the effects of ‘harmless’ jokes or humor, such as telling someone, “You are too pretty to be in tech.” The comment might seem lighthearted, but it is a common example of microaggression.
- Avoid making assumptions, such as age-based assumptions.
- Rethink your compliments.
- Be aware of your body language, such as side-eye, interruptions, or excluding others.
The management, especially the human resources department, should not leave microaggressions unaddressed. Here is a list of how to respond to and address microaggressions.
- Address microaggressions in the virtual workplace with the same seriousness as you do with in-person conversations. For instance, leaders should create space for open feedback and normalize conversations around inclusion.
- Education: Education will equip human resources with the knowledge they need to recognize what microaggressions are and how they manifest.
- Promote inclusivity: The onboarding process should incorporate inclusivity training to help employees recognize that the organization is committed to being respectful and inclusive.
- Use active bystander training: Teach your employees to take a proactive role when they witness microaggressions, which means that everyone plays a role in maintaining a respectful environment.
- Encourage self-reflection: Employees should take a proactive role through self-reflection to be aware of their own biases.
- Ongoing reinforcement: Addressing microaggressions is an ongoing process, such as conducting regular training sessions, refreshers, and workshops to reinforce the importance of respect in the workplace.
The Role of Training and Workshops in Mitigating Microaggressions
The ability to develop awareness is undeniably the first step in bringing about lasting change in the workplace. Using real-world conflict examples, training, and workshops can help participants see how microaggressions unfold in everyday interactions. These sessions then provide practical tools to respond to and address such behaviors in the following ways:
Building Awareness
Training and workshops can raise awareness, create a safe space for leaders or service workers to understand microaggressions more deeply, and explain why they matter. Real-world examples and role-playing exercises can help an employee recognize the effects of microaggressions.
Improving Inclusive Communication
Training and workshops are designed to offer participants practical tools to respond to a microaggression incident, like how to reframe their comments, use respectful questions, and rethink their identity assumptions.
Creating Empathy and Perspective-Thinking
Training and workshops create opportunities for interactive activities, which means allowing participants to step into others’ shoes and gain a better understanding of how it feels to be a target of hate. This develops empathy, which is the cornerstone of an inclusive culture.
Empowering Leaders
Training and workshops prepare leaders to avoid microaggressions, strengthen their emotional intelligence, and respond with confidence when addressing microaggression issues in the workplace.
Sustains Change Over Time
Training and workshops ensure that one-off sessions are not enough, especially when they occur regularly. These sessions will ensure that the learning sticks and becomes a part of the workplace culture.
Pollack Peacebuilding’s Approach to Fostering a More Inclusive and Respectful Workplace Environment
Pollack Peacebuilding Systems specializes in conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts in diverse organizations. As part of our workplace consulting services, we use a combination of approaches such as coaching, systems design, listening, and leadership development.
Here is our approach to fostering a more inclusive and respectful workplace environment.
Communication Techniques and Active Listening
As seen from the many examples of microaggressions in the workplace, it is evident that communication is always involved. We believe that nonverbal communication techniques and active listening can reduce and prevent microaggressions.
Clear communication is direct, and it involves meeting others where they are, even when communication styles differ. Active listening means understanding others’ perspectives, acknowledging them, and respecting conversations without becoming defensive.
Cultural Diversity Awareness
Culture is not something that people just see. It includes language, food, and dress codes. Culture is also something that we don’t see, as it includes values, ways of relating, and preferences. Often, a lack of understanding of these differences can result in the manifestation of microaggressions.
Pollack uses cultural diversity awareness as a means to develop cultural competence among employees, including offering them the tools they need to understand the invisible layers of culture.
Training Programs and Workshops
Pollack provides training programs and workshops to train teams on various aspects, including cross-cultural sensitivity, open communication, and how to interpret non-verbal cues. These are some of the skills that shape everyday interactions, whether one is seeking help from a colleague, giving feedback, or disagreeing respectfully.
Explicit communication training helps employees to communicate clearly without coming off as rude, especially when talking to persons from a marginalized group.
Benefits of Addressing Microaggressions for Overall Workplace Productivity and Employee Morale
Addressing microaggressions can significantly improve overall workplace productivity and employee morale. Addressing microaggressions increases the psychological safety of employees, which then establishes the workplace as a place where everyone feels safe to be themselves. The result is enhanced employee morale.
Addressing microaggressions also improves employee well-being by reducing negative psychological thoughts and eliminating any emerging mental health issues. Reduced stress and a heightened sense of belonging make employees happy, collaborative, and more productive.
An improved sense of belonging also strengthens employee engagement. Employees who feel respected and included are more engaged with their work, which leads to more profitability and greater job satisfaction.
Addressing microaggressions reduces employee turnover, which ultimately means that the organization doesn’t have to spend money on the recruitment process. Managers should create an inclusive and respectful workplace culture that leads to higher employee morale and higher productivity.
These employees aren’t burdened by stress from being excluded, and they can focus well on their tasks and improve their productivity. A psychologically safe organization allows differences, which fosters innovation and creativity. The sharing of different types of ideas can easily translate into new product developments and an improved way to solve problems collectively.
Addressing microaggressions also means reduced absenteeism. A hostile environment is generally unwelcoming, and targeted employees will choose to stay at home and miss work rather than deal with subtle, unintentional derogatory comments from their co-workers.
At Pollack Peacebuilding Systems, we provide training for organizations to help them navigate diversity and inclusion-related challenges. Our training programs and workshops are designed for employees and managers who need extensive skills in order to create an inclusive workplace environment.
Contact us today to create a place where employees thrive and diversity drives success.
