Our Director Adele was interviewed by George Chesterton, Senior Features Editor at The Telegraph Newspaper, to give her opinion and expert advice for an article about ‘microaggressions’ in the workplace and how to deal with them from an HR and business owner’s perspective, here’s a summary of the article, the pitfalls and advice from Adele.
We are probably all guilty of making what we think are insignificant comments or taking small actions that we consider to be throw away, motivational or even quite well meaning and polite. What do we mean by microaggressions? These verbal or behavioural slights are often unintentional and can convey a derogatory or negative attitude towards someone, for example telling someone to ‘man up’ when you want someone to rise to a challenge or strengthen their resilience, Adele rightly says this is “gender bias, as when said to a woman it infers a man is stronger or superior, and if said to a man it posits a predefined quality of strength, resilience or fortitude that is necessary or required to be male.”
What other types of microaggressions have been spoken about recently? The frequent one which is confusing for lots of people seems to be common courtesy, holding a door open for someone to pass, should we? …shouldn’t we? Is the age of chivalry dead? Adele advises, “Certainly, it’s not to be encouraged in tight spaces, respect people’s personal space. If someone complained, I would find out if it was a regular thing and I’d be tempted to ask if the person complaining would rather have the door swing back in their face. However, letting a woman go before them would need to be addressed if someone complained about feeling uncomfortable. It would just be a conversation and there aren’t any legal factors involved.”
Microaggressions are often unintentional and even well-meaning but convey a derogatory or negative attitude toward someone on the grounds of a protected characteristic such as race, sex, ability, gender or age. It’s a complex and nuanced concept, but increasingly accepted across HR departments.
On the subject of ability, have you considered how criticising someone for not making eye contact can impact them? For example, a colleague appears to be repeatedly less engaging than others in meetings, they could be speaking quietly and not making eye contact, which can be perceived as uncommunicative or showing a lack of involvement with whatever is being discussed. Adele recommends “You shouldn’t criticise or judge this in any scenario. It shouldn’t be a point of judgement. It could be related to something such as autism but even if it’s not, it’s not a cause for criticism.”
Being a working parent to children under 18 years old is tough. Is it fair to assume that other colleagues should fill in? Have you ever thought that your co-workers without children should be more available to work at those times of year perceived to be solely or mainly for children? Maybe annual leave for those special days should be prioritised for those with little ones? Do you think that the people with children should be able to leave work earlier to pick up their children? This is an assumption about a person being free at times when other colleagues with children under 18 are most likely to want to be away from work.
Adele advises that “This is very common and also extends to expecting those without children can or should work on bank holidays and at Christmas, for example. These people could have caring responsibilities and other life responsibilities outside of having children. Children aren’t automatically relevant to a person’s availability or ability.”
‘You look too young to work here’ and ‘are you having a senior moment?’ are both specifically about a person’s perceived age. The first comment is especially commonly used as a ‘compliment’ towards women, however it is loaded with assumptions based on the bias that they couldn’t possibly hold high status positions. The second comment is usually meant as a joke but don’t we all forget things, whatever age we are? There could be other factors involved like the menopause for example.
Adele is firm on this, “Referring to personal characteristics or traits of people that have no relevance to someone’s capability and ability is a no-no. This is age discrimination, essentially, because why would this have any relevance to any assessment of their performance? Even complimenting someone’s outfit can have an impact because it can be taken as a criticism of what the person has worn before. The intent was positive, but the impact is negative. That’s true of a lot of microaggressions.” And “Making comment about age is biased based on the perception of someone’s age. It’s not harassment unless it’s persistent but it’s unconscious because you are thinking about someone’s age when you shouldn’t be. You are labelling someone. This could potentially form part of an age discrimination case, particularly if it comes from a manager.”
Have you heard a colleague say ‘It’s just my OCD”, used as a throwaway remark to make fun of themselves, their neatness and organisation? Adele says “This implies a self-diagnosis of OCD and apart from anything else is based on usually false assumptions about what OCD actually is, that certain behaviours fall into that diagnosis and often they just don’t. Saying this trivialises a mental health condition. The other side of it is that if someone actually has OCD and says this they could make their colleagues uncomfortable.”
The intent was positive, but the impact is negative. That’s true of a lot of microaggressions. The most common criticism of microaggressions is that they encourage hypersensitivity and that such remarks are blown out of proportion, but others claim they can have a serious impact on mental and physical health, including depression and sleeping problems.
Commenting on health issues or disabilities, even if meant in a positive light can be taken the wrong way, for example saying something like, “The way you have overcome your disability is so inspiring’ could be meant with the best intentions but how much do you really know about the nature of the hardships and challenges the person has faced?
“You shouldn’t allow disability to imply a lack of ability so on the basis that a colleague has a registered disability, that disability should not be part of anyone’s thought process, unless it is related to some particular provision for the disability. Almost all these cases can be resolved through discussion, but if you can discern either ill intent or significant impact then they can become performance management issues.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/02/are-you-guilty-of-microaggressions-quiz