Dealing with microaggressions in the workplace

​Many people haven’t heard of the term ‘microaggressions’, but it’s highly likely that they’ve heard one in the workplace. Offhand comments about someone’s appearance, their racial heritage, their ability to do a job, even calling a fully grown woman “girl” or “sweetheart” all come under the category of microaggressions.

For years these have been accepted as part of the workplace or dismissed as ‘banter’. However, if we’re serious about creating inclusive workplaces then it’s important that we challenge this. Everyone in our team should feel comfortable and safe at work. A constant flow of microaggressions eats away at someone and can be seriously damaging to their mental health.

What are microaggressions?

The Oxford dictionary defines microaggressions as “a statement, action or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination or prejudice against members of a marginalised group such as a racial minority.”

They’re everyday instances of homophobia, racism, sexism or any other type of discrimination in action. It might be a passing comment; “You don’t look Asian”, “Where are you really from?”, “I’m so OCD about my notepad”, “You’re being so emotional”, “That’s so gay”. You get the idea.

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There are different types of microaggressions:

• Microassaults: This is intentional discrimination through using racial epithets or taking deliberate actions to hold back someone from say progressing in their career.

• Microinsults: Through verbal and nonverbal communications to subtly demean a person’s racial heritage, for instance telling someone they speak very good English.

• Microinvalidations: Negating or playing down someone’s thoughts, feelings or experiences like asking someone where they’re really from.

Often the people saying those things aren’t even aware of the impact or hurt they’re causing. That’s because microaggressions are linked to our subconscious bias and some of the associations are ingrained in the very fabric of our society. That doesn’t mean we should tolerate them.

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The mosquito effect

Even though they’re called micro, the last impact can have a devastating effect. Fusion Comedy has a great video where they liken microaggressions to mosquito bites. A one-off comment - or bite, is annoying but you can move on from it. When you’re inundated with bites it becomes debilitating.

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Imagine if every time you met someone new, they commented on how hard you name was to pronounce, (Try having a surname like Acuna Ocana!) and you go through life constantly being called the wrong name.

For those in underrepresented or marginalised communities that’s their reality. Over time microaggressions can hold people back at work, can make them revert into themselves or withdraw from larger groups or communities, it can cause long term stress conditions and damage their mental health.

As employers, we can’t talk about embedding EDI and building inclusive cultures if we aren’t taking steps to stamp out microaggressions within our firms.

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How to handle microaggressions in the workplace

Many employers are focusing on embedding EDI within the business and taking steps to ensure an inclusive workplace, but at Ambition we’ve had instances where, despite the pledges to inclusivity, we’ve placed people from minority backgrounds who’ve felt uncomfortable in their new workplace due to microaggressions.

This is one of those instances where actions speak far louder than words. There are steps employers can take to address microaggressions in the workplace helping create a truly inclusive environment.

Clear policies and guidelines

To effectively tackle microaggressions in the workplace we need to start with clear policies and guidelines defining what’s classed as a microaggression and what the steps for escalation or reporting are.

A strong anti-bullying and harassment policy draws a line in the sand, allowing you as an employer to take action when needed as well as providing reassurance to those from marginalised communities and backgrounds that you take their wellbeing seriously.

This policy can then become the backbone of all other initiatives within the business.

Training and education

There’s no denying that some microaggressions are consciously delivered with discriminative intent, but a large proportion are simply misinformed. The trouble with microaggressions is that you’re dealing with people’s subconscious bias. They may sit in a workshop and think they’re doing everything right before meeting someone while getting a coffee and coming out with a microaggression.

The only way to address this is through repeated education, training and workshops taking real life examples and highlighting how they’re inappropriate. By focusing on what microaggressions are, their impact and how these can be avoided, you’ll start to open people’s eyes and make them more aware of what they’re saying to others.

Open communication

Employees need to be given steps to follow if they witness or experience microaggressions. Are they meant to confront the person in the moment? Do they report it to a line manager? What about the person who experienced it - do they need specific support? Making it clear what the mechanism is, and it might be an anonymous process, opens the conversation for those who feel uncomfortable or unsafe in speaking out publicly.

This also goes hand in hand with the education piece. We need to accept that we’re human, we are going to make mistakes, that doesn’t make you a bad person, but we need to empower each other to ask for support in addressing our bias.

Accountability and support

Providing opportunities for peer-to-peer support groups, whether that’s formal or informal, can be a valued benefit. These networks provide support, community and reassurance and can inform future policy and approach changes if necessary.

Employers can also support these groups by providing access to talking therapy services, demonstrating an understanding of the emotional and mental toll microaggressions can take on an individual.

What’s crucial is ensuring people don’t feel isolated, that they feel welcome, supported and part of something bigger than themselves.

Reverse mentoring

In instances where there’s a disparity between an employee's lived experience within a company and the leadership team’s assumptions of their experience then reverse mentoring can be useful. This is where a senior member of staff is paired up with someone from a marginalised background to learn more about their experience and that of others in the business.

This style of mentoring can provide a valuable insight into the areas such as microaggressions and the impact they have on an individual. In turn helping to inform policy and culture changes.

When it comes to microaggressions we have to accept that even with a robust EDI policy and the best intentions there’s a chance they’re happening in our business. In some instances it’s wrongly ingrained in our society, in others people are unaware that what they’re saying or doing is discriminatory or some are well aware of their actions but are so subtle and discreet it goes under the radar. In any instance, it’s wrong and we need to do something about it.

By starting with building out robust policies that outline the support, the process but also the consequences, and ensuring a solid education plan is in place. Not a webinar that happens every now and then but a recurring training programme that calls out microaggressions.

Through education and awareness, you can begin to open people’s eyes to the existence of microaggressions as well as their impact.

We then need to follow that up with support for everyone in our team so they feel a sense of belonging and can access further help if they need it.

This is one of those instances where it’s not enough to say we’re an inclusive employer, we need to go out of our way to prove it.

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About the author

Nicky Acuna Ocana is the Regional Managing Director of Ambition US, UK and Europe. Nicky is particularly passionate about DEI and publishes regular articles and thought leadership on inclusive hiring and retention. Follow her newsletter here.