Focus: Microaggressions

Here’s a statistic that might surprise you: More than one-quarter of U.S. employees who responded to a recent survey reported that they’d definitely experienced a microaggression at work; another 22% said they might have suffered a microaggression on the job.

These numbers show that microaggressions are fairly common in the workplace, and they help explain why you need to respond to them quickly in order to reduce the chances that someone who suffers a microaggression will pursue a costly lawsuit.

Microaggressions, which are subtle behaviors that lead someone to feel devalued, can take many different forms, including microassaults, which are overt actions meant to cause harm, e.g., hanging up a photo of a scantily clad woman.

Another type of microaggression is a microinsult, which isn’t intended to cause harm and is often driven by unconscious bias or cultural ignorance. Example: Telling a Black person that he or she is articulate, which implies that Black people aren’t expected to be articulate.

And microaggressions sometimes take the form of microinvalidations – talking over someone or blatantly interrupting a coworker. For instance, a male employee might “manterrupt” a female colleague.

As a supervisor focused on stamping out unacceptable conduct such as microaggressions, it’s important to act promptly and decisively when you become aware of a potential microaggression that has upset a crew member.

Speak to the person who has committed the microaggression, and carefully explain to him or her the difference between intent and impact. Example: “I know you didn’t intend for your comment to come off as discriminatory, but your coworker perceived the statement to be offensive to her national origin.”

(From the Sept. 20, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)