Microaggressions are brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, and environmental actions. Whether unintentional or intentional, these actions communicate negative, hostile, or derogatory racial slights and insults towards a particular group. For instance, these are people of color, women, gays, lesbians, LGBT people, religious minorities, and people with disabilities.
Sexism, racism, homophobia, and other stereotypical behavior exist within organizations, demonstrating biases and prejudices in subtle ways, known as microaggressions. In today’s article, we will discuss different types of microaggressions that affect people in your organization and focus on interventions, strategies, and methods to address them.
Microaggressions
According to Thrive Global, over 64% of women experience derogatory words in the workplace. Microaggressions are common and everyday verbal and non-verbal slights, snubs, and insults that indicate derogatory messages to target people based upon their marginalized group membership. As a leader of an organization or business community, can you tell what is wrong with the following statements?
- When are you going to have that promotion? You are not getting any younger.
It is a verbal statement that sends the message to a person that he can’t have a promotion. It also puts a person on the spot if they are dealing with promotional issues.
- I think I have stress from that meeting
Bear in mind that this is one of the severe issues that affect many people, especially those who are sensitive and want to improve their social/organizational skills.
- At least, you are not that old to retire
What do you think of this sentence? It is a statement that a young employee in your organization makes to tell the older one that old-age is a bad thing. It means the young employees should take charge or work in the company and oldies should retire. All these three statements are examples of microaggressions. Let us give you some more examples:
- I am surprised you speak English so well…
- How can you believe in something so wrong?
- Did you know the guy they arrested?
- Isn’t it repressive to wear that on your head?
- I bet you have a hard time solving those problems…
- You are not like the other ones…
- No, where are you really from?
- I won’t even try to pronounce your name…
Although these statements or microaggressions are not severe, they can turn into discrimination or harassment if they repeatedly happen over time. Again, the impact is more harmful when people direct them to a protected class. Besides, transgender employees working in your organization are not a protected class, but they can file lawsuits on gender microaggressions.
Types of Microaggressions
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), microaggressions can cause a significant performance gap, preventing your employees from staying productive. In addition, when an employee experiences microaggressions because of his/her gender, race, and skin color, it can impact his person’s performance and overall mental wellbeing. The concept is also known as stereotype threat.
Microaggressions are statements or actions of discrimination and biases against a targeted group. Research shows that subtle and indirect comments can affect a person’s physical and mental health. That’s why leaders must recognize the types of microaggressions and make efforts to control them in their organizations.
One study shows that people who experience microaggressions have negative job satisfaction, reducing productivity and ROIs for business leaders. In addition, researchers argue that a hostile work environment can also impact employees’ safety, leading to increased risks of physical and mental health issues.
Remember, this can cause absenteeism due to stress, anxiety, depression, alcohol-related problems, suicidal ideations, etc. There are three primary forms of microaggressions:
1. Micro-Assaults
Micro assaults are overt discrimination forms in which people behave in unfair and discriminatory ways. However, they don’t intend to offend others. These people also think that their actions are not harmful to others. Bear in mind that micro assaults are similar to old-fashioned discrimination, preventing people from proclaiming their biases openly.
For instance, when you say “that is so gay,” it indicates something is incorrect or weird. Although you are aware of your words, you don’t realize the harmful effect of such words on your employees. People often consider these words as homophobic. Likewise, when you make a racial slur in your organization, you have said an offensive comment. However, you end your sentence with “I was joking” to deny your prejudice.
2. Micro-Insults
Micro insults are statements in which people unintentionally say discriminatory words to members of target groups. For instance, you have Asian Americans working in your organization, and you tell them, “Your English is quite fluent; I wasn’t expecting this” as a compliment.
Although your statement does not intend any harm, it would offend your Asian American employees. It implies that Asian Americans don’t speak English fluently. Remember, instances like these are upsetting for Asian Americans who don’t speak any other language besides English.
Micro-Invalidations
A 2019 research study highlights that micro-invalidations are verbal statements people use to undermine or negate the reality of a particular group. For instance, when a white manager tells an African American employee that racism doesn’t exist, the manager denies the employee’s racial reality.
Likewise, when a supervisor in your organization tells a woman that she is too sensitive, he invalidates the reality of racial or gender discrimination in her life. Therefore, leaders must understand all these three concepts to make mitigation strategies.
Microaggressions Prevention Strategies for Leaders
Now that you know about microaggressions and how they can turn into discrimination let us discuss the steps you should take as a leader to maintain compliance within your organization and reduce risks. Continue reading!
Influence Your Organization Culture
Most employees are unaware that their reliance on stereotypes and unconscious biases can affect their actions. The reason is that they think these views are ingrained in the organization’s culture.
For instance, if your HR department reviews two resumes and the manager notices that one of the candidates went to the same college he did, the manager will cast the candidate in a positive light.
As a leader of the organization, you may not control your employees the way they act outside of work, but you can influence your company’s culture. Here are some of the best methods you can implement to create a respectful culture and prevent microaggressions.
Create Strict Policies
If you haven’t created a policy to control microaggressions in your organization, you can hire an experienced lawyer to create one. On the other hand, if you have already created a formalized policy, ensure it is up-to-date. Besides, focus on the significance of professional conduct and lead by example. Finally, define in your policy what is acceptable and what is not in your organization.
Get Feedback from your Employees
One of the primary reasons most employees don’t speak up when they experience derogatory statements is because they feel fear. For instance, your employees may ask themselves:
- Will my manager or supervisors think I am an overly sensitive person?
- Will my employer take me seriously?
- Will my colleagues retaliate against me if I speak up against microaggressions?
Remember, a culture of fear in your organization will lead to a hostile environment. Therefore, as a leader, you must create an open culture and encourage your employees to communicate and offer feedback. That way, you can stop microaggressions and mitigate unlawful harassment in your company. You can also use the feedback data to address your employees’ concerns.
Teach your Employees on Respectful Communication
As a business leader, you must teach your employees to communicate respectfully. It is an excellent strategy to prevent microaggressions, discrimination, and harassment in your organization. Use different scenarios to show the wrong and right way to your administrative staff and other employees.
You can use compliance training to teach your employees about your company’s policies, helping them learn how to communicate respectfully. Here is an example: Michael, Josefina, and Naomi are conversing about the next team meeting.
| Example of Wrong and Write Communication in the Workplace | ||
|---|---|---|
| Employee Name | Wrong Way | Right Way |
| Josefina | I was thinking of ordering fast food for the next meeting. | I was thinking of ordering some food for our next meeting. What do you think? |
| Naomi | Can we get some sugary food? How about a cake? I know you can’t eat it because of your diabetes. Whatever…the rest of the team members can eat it! | Let us get some desserts, including a cake and a sugar-free item, so that you can enjoy it too. |
| Michael | How about some sweet tamales, Josefina? I know you are a Latino, so you can make it, right? | I think we should do a potluck-style lunch and each team member should bring food. What do you want to bring, Josefina? What about you, Naomi? |
Use Compliance Training
Leaders must focus on compliance training because it is essential to reinforce respect in your organizational culture. Encourage your employees to comprehend acceptable organizational behavior. Online training is an excellent way to teach your employees about compliance.
The purpose is to maintain an inclusive environment in your company. However, not all compliance training programs are the same. In addition, some are outdated, such as a gender discrimination video from the 1990s.
If you want your employees not to laugh and snicker at the training, make sure you implement a sophisticated online training strategy. Moreover, prevention is an effective tool to eliminate microaggressions from your company.
Make sure your employees take steps to prevent microaggressions and harassment by communicating effectively. Productive leaders consistently implement and update organizational policy on microaggressions, meaning they don’t tolerate stereotypes and harassment.
Effective, mandatory, and periodic training is an essential part of your prevention strategy and must include the following elements. Keep reading!
· Lawfulness
The first essential thing you should focus on is that the training must address the law adequately. If the training program focuses on entertainment and does not educate your employees, you will waste resources, including money and time. The worst thing of all is that your organization is still at risk.
· Employee-Friendly
Create an employee-friendly training program. Remember, this is what leaders do! No matter your employees’ level of technical experience, they must complete the course. It means you should quickly deploy the training to everyone in your company, no matter where they are located.
· Engaging and Flexible
If your training course is full legalese, it will bore your employees, leading to complications. For instance, your employees won’t focus on the course. Therefore, create an engaging training program, allowing your employees to interact effectively. For example, you can include case studies, read-through materials, games, quizzes, etc. The purpose is to ensure your employees retain the information.
Moreover, provide your employees with an opportunity to choose from off-the-shelf microaggressions courses. However, you must customize or personalize the content to meet your organization’s needs and teach your employees about mitigating microaggressions.
· Update Your Training Program
Because laws, rules, and regulations change, it is crucial to update your training program. The purpose is to address these changes. We recommend updating your policy on microaggressions annually or every two years. Here are some additional compliance training questions you should answer to develop an effective program.
- Do you need to deliver courses or training in multiple languages?
- What is the length of each course?
- Does the program align with your organizational culture?
- How to create the content? Do I need an expert?
- How easy is it to implement, monitor, and analyze employees’ success rates?
Conduct Lawful Hiring
Sometimes, a professional organizational culture and compliance training won’t impact employees’ behavior. Therefore, as a leader, you must ensure problematic candidates or those with microaggressions/unlawful conduct don’t become your employees.
In addition, ensure stereotypes and unconscious biases do not influence the screening and interviewing process. Implement the following strategies in your hiring process to achieve your goals and mitigate the risk of microaggressions.
- Evaluate the job application and resumes thoroughly
- Verify job descriptions with no discriminatory language
- Screen resumes and applications to reduce microaggressions or unconscious bias
- Decide which members of the HR team will conduct the interviews
- Create a strategy to prepare the HR team for the interviews
- Teach your HR team on handling illegal subjects during the interview process
- Perform legal background and reference checks
- Conduct job-related testing before accepting a job application
Discipline and Performance Reviews
Hiring and interviewing are not the only areas that pose threats or risks to your organization. Make sure microaggressions and unconscious biases do not affect your employees’ discipline and performance review.
Most managers don’t discriminate or retaliate intentionally against employees. However, they do it unconsciously. So, as a leader of the organization, you can help your managers and supervisors understand and remove biases. Focus on the following:
- Check for microaggressions, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation
- Provide thorough and detailed feedback to your employees in all documentation
- Document the 5Ws (what, who, when, where, and why) of a particular situation
- Avoid disciplining the person and focus more on the action
- Make documentation objective and avoid subjectivity
- Use the job description to cite relevant examples of performance deficiency
- Get your employee’s signature on the documentation
Moreover, prepare throughout the year to have enough time to prepare a meaningful review. Double-check the information to ensure all the details in the performance reviews represent supportable facts. Share bi-monthly or monthly feedback with your employees to prevent surprise situations. Besides, ask open-ended questions focus on your employees’ goals and needs.
Realign your Organizational Structure
Each organization has a core value system that focuses on embedded beliefs to reinforce an essential productivity tool known as micromanagement. Therefore, it is crucial to realign your company’s structure to obtain the macro view of how you can align your employees around your company goals and productivity achievements.
Microaggressions are the leading cause of aggressive and discriminatory behavior, leading to reduced productivity and ROIs. It would help if you changed your organizational micro leadership mindsets into something persuasive that compels your employees. As a result, they can use the best of their talents, become productive, and benefit your company.
But, remember, it all starts with practical, unbiased, and cooperative leadership, meaning you must look beyond your employees’ microaggressions and realign your organizational structure.
Final Words
Microaggressions are subtle and pervasive, leading to a wide range of complications in your organization. However, as a leader, you can make a huge difference by reducing their occurrence within your company.
You must lead by example, facilitate honest discussions with your managerial level staff and other employees. That way, you can establish a supportive organizational culture. Armed with the knowledge of how microaggressions can cause problems, you can use the tips and tricks given above to reduce your organization’s risks.
Create a respectful culture in your organization, use compliance training, conduct lawful hiring, and craft a solid strategy for discipline and performance reviews. The purpose is to create an effective training program to mitigate the effects of microaggressions in your company. From entry-level employees to executive managers, your staff can learn how to communicate respectfully and eliminate subtle forms of microaggressions. As a leader, you can play a massive role in mitigating discrimination, biases, and stereotypes in your company. Until Next Time!