Iman Bukhari, a communications professional based in Calgary, says the word ‘microaggression’ minimizes the effects of racism and bias.Leah Hennel
“It hurts.”
That’s what Amanda Uchendu says about being the target of microaggressions at work. As a Black woman working in Winnipeg, Ms. Uchendu says, “It’s hard being myself in the workplace without being judged or perceived as something I’m not. I simply would be myself, and people assumed I was mad about something.”
Despite repeatedly asking for learning and advancement opportunities within her organization, Ms. Uchendu says she’s been dismissed and ignored.
“I feel humiliated in my department,” she says. “My colleagues and friends have seen how I am being treated – they are telling me they want to train me and see me do well in this organization and to keep trying, but I’m tired. You can only beg so much to be given a chance, a fair chance.”
When people think about racism and homophobia in the workplace, they likely think about overt violence or slurs. But microaggressions – subtle comments and actions that demean or dismiss someone based on their gender, race or other aspects of their identity – can be just as harmful for racialized and other marginalized women at work.
McKinsey & Company’s recently published 2023 Women in the Workplace report explores several workplace myths, including the idea that microaggressions have a “micro” impact. The report found that racialized women, LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities were more likely to report experiencing several kinds of microaggressions, including others taking credit for their ideas, having their judgment questioned, being mistaken for someone else of the same race or having others comment on their appearance or emotional state.
The effects of these microaggressions were significant: “Women who experience microaggressions – and self-shield to deflect them – are three times more likely to think about quitting their jobs and four times more likely to almost always be burned out,” said the report.
“Microaggressions affect marginalized women – and anyone in a marginalized group – by making workplaces feel unsafe,” explains Carmina Ravanera, senior research associate at the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “On top of their work, people may have to hide parts of their identity or change themselves, which is exhausting.”
Iman Bukhari, a communications professional based in Calgary, says she thinks the word ‘microaggression’ minimizes the effects of racism and bias. “I’ve seen videos that explain microaggressions [as like] a mosquito biting you. The way [they’re] describing it is, ‘Oh, it’s just another annoying thing that people have to deal with.’”
People who report microaggressions are often disparaged as “complaining” or as overly sensitive, says Ms. Bukhari, which misses the larger impact.
“If you’re saying something to me that’s racist, you’re being racist, and I would rather call it that,” she says. “These are not microaggressions. You are dehumanizing a person. You’re belittling a person. You’re belittling their identity.”
Ms. Bukhari, who is Muslim, says she can’t be her authentic self at work – especially with the current war in Gaza.
“If I was to go into a workplace right now and express that I’m stressed [about] a genocide happening, supported by our government, that’s my authentic self. Will that be accepted in a workplace?” she asks. “People are lying when they tell you that they want you to bring your authentic self [to work], because [they] will not accept [you].”
Navigating a ‘mental minefield’
The McKinsey report says that microaggressions make the workplace a “mental minefield” for women with traditionally marginalized identities. Almost a third of women with disabilities said they hide important aspects of their identities to fit in. And more than half (55 per cent) of Black women and 44 per cent of women with disabilities feel that they’ll be penalized for making mistakes at work.
As a Black woman who is hard of hearing working in a corporate setting, Eyra Abraham says she felt she couldn’t disclose her disability or ask for accommodations because it would put her at a disadvantage.
“You’re trying to cover your tracks all the time,” says Ms. Abraham. “You have to do more work [in order to] make sure you’re hearing the information correctly and that you’re not going to make a mistake.”
Ms. Abraham was able to make her own way by founding Lisnen, an app that uses AI technology to help people with hearing loss. “It gave me a pathway and a freedom to be myself,” she says.
Monnica T. Williams, Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities and associate professor at the University of Ottawa, says that painful experiences of microaggressions can cause employees to “spend too much time checking and rechecking their work to make sure it is ‘perfect’ so they don’t get criticized. They may go to great lengths to seem very put-together and on-the-ball, but the other side of that coin is that others may not realize the person is suffering or that things need to change.”
In order to keep up the facade, women may code-switch, which means changing their speech, appearance, and/or behaviour to blend in with the dominant culture. According to the McKinsey report, more than a third (36 per cent) of Black women code-switch at work.
Ika Washington, a health-care consultant and York University PhD student in public health & policy, says she’s made a conscious choice not to code-switch.
“I’m going to wear my long nails. I’m going to wear my hoop earrings. I’m going to be who I am whether you accept me or not. I’m going to be extremely unapologetic about it,” she says. “I’ve done the code-switching [in the past], and I still wasn’t accepted, so you might as well not accept me being myself when I don’t have to dress up and do all that stuff.”
Workplaces that are psychologically safe
Ms. Washington encourages employees to understand their province’s Human Rights Code to deal with workplace microaggressions. Education is a start, she says, but it’s not enough – organizations need to enact a zero-tolerance policy. Dr. Williams agrees that change can’t happen with simple lunch-and-learns and online training sessions.
“I cannot teach people to become completely enlightened or sensitized over an optional lunch meeting,” says Dr. Williams. “This takes purposeful directed ongoing work. It has to be prioritized from the top, with managers and supervisors rewarded or penalized based on measurable performance outcomes for workplace climate, based on surveys or other feedback from employees with marginalized identities.”
While Ms. Ravanera says training can be a useful starting point, it needs to be accompanied by organizational policies that make it clear that microaggressions and other biased behaviours will not be tolerated. “Organizational culture should also support allyship, where employees are encouraged to speak up and show support when they see microaggressions carried out against their colleagues,” she says.
In essence, companies need to create psychologically safe workplaces for all employees because people just can’t perform at their best if they are battling microaggressions, says Ms. Ravanera.
“This is why it behooves workplaces to ensure everyone feels respected and can contribute in the best way they can – and that means a space where microaggressions are addressed and efforts are made to stop them from happening in the first place.”
On days when coping with microaggressions becomes too much, Ms. Uchendu says she sometimes thinks about moving on. But when she meets Black women and people of colour at the career fairs she attends on behalf of her employer, she feels she needs to hold on.
“I can’t give up because you’re giving them hope that there’s room for them too,” she says. “If I leave and give up, what does that say to them?”
The Globe and Mail
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