In this episode, Michelle covers microaggressions in the workplace, offering a thoughtful exploration of what the term means, how microaggressions manifest, and their profound impact on individuals and organizational culture. Michelle explains that microaggressions are verbal or nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults—whether intentional or not—that communicate negative or hostile messages based on aspects of a person's identity, such as race, gender, age, or ability. She emphasizes that while these actions may seem minor or innocuous on the surface, their cumulative effect can be deeply harmful, eroding individuals’ sense of belonging and engagement at work.

Throughout the episode, Michelle outlines the different forms microaggressions can take, from repeatedly mispronouncing someone’s name to making assumptions about an employee’s abilities based on stereotypes. She discusses the heightened impact for individuals with intersectional identities and closes by providing listeners with practical questions to foster reflection and action: How do we enable timely and safe reporting, how do we ensure psychological safety in our responses, and what organizational norms can help prevent microaggressions?

To find out more and connect with Michelle and Jamey, visit: https://www.equity-at-work.com/

Key Topics Discussed:

• Definition and explanation of microaggressions
• Relationship between unconscious bias and microaggressions
• Verbal and nonverbal examples of microaggressions
• Impact on individuals, especially those with intersectional identities
• Common workplace examples of microaggressions
• Psychological and professional consequences for affected employees
• Barriers to reporting and addressing microaggressions
• Strategies and reflective questions for organizations to address microaggressions

I'm Michelle Bogan, founder and CEO of Equity at Work, and this is your DEI Minute, your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization, all in fifteen minutes or less. In this episode, I wanna take you through a little bit of a deeper dive into microaggressions in the workplace and, you know, what that term means, how they show up, and what the impact of those can be. So a lot of people talk about unconscious bias, and really microaggressions are an acting out of that bias. And and really, they can be an acting out of a bias that is unconscious or conscious. Typically, it's more of an unconscious level that's coming out, but the unconscious bias or the bias is really is the thought or the thinking around it's a judgment on someone based on an assumption about, you know, based on how they look or some affinity that you have with them or some association you have of them with somebody else. The microaggression is really the action that's taken on that. So kind of from a more terminology definition perspective, microaggressions are defined as verbal and nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or not, that really are demonstrating hostile or derogatory or negative messages based on someone's identity.

And it I think it's important to remember that many of these can be nonverbal. It can be based on body language. It can be based on excluding somebody from, being invited to an event or a meeting. It can be you know, this is a little more verbal, but can it it can be in tone. It can be in your you know, the expression on your face. It could be even just standing in someone's way physically. And then, of course, there are a lot of verbal ways that this comes out and that gets into more of the, you know, subs or insults. Slurs, unfortunately, are part of this.

These can happen to anybody, but I would say, you know, it's this is a particular area of sensitivity for employees who have intersectional identities. What I mean by that is let's say you're thinking of an employee who is a woman who is also a person of color. They've got an intersectional identity between their racial identity and their, gender identity. You may have someone who's, neurodiverse and of an older, you know, an older generation age. So that's they've got they may experience, bias and therefore microaggressions based on their age. Same may happen based on their, neurodiversity. So what's hard with that is that it really can have a compounding effect. And so what that employee's experiencing can be even deeper than someone who just experiences based on one aspect of their identity.

There are a lot of different types of microaggressions, like I said, and I'll just list a number of different topics or identities that, you know, that sort of can lead to these microaggressions happening. It could be based on your sexuality, your age, your gender identity, your sort of physical and on your ability, on your mental health. It can be based on education, your culture, your religion, ethnicity, or, you know, sort of country of origin, language, or even language ability, class income, socioeconomic status, race. I mean, the, the list can go on and on, but those are some of the most common microaggressions that do happen in the workplace. In terms of the impact of microaggressions on an individual, these can be really tough to address because they're micro. So which doesn't mean the impact is micro, but the instance is micro. So what that means is it can be difficult to bring this up as a complaint or even to push back because they can at a surface level appear pretty innocuous. And so if it's something that happens to you, you might feel like, you know, am I gonna look like I'm just oversensitive? Am I am I being petty? Am I making a big deal about something that wasn't intended to be harmful? And so a lot of times they go unreported.

The problem is the impact, you know, compounds, and the impact really, you know, has a lot of lasting, really important ramifications, which I'll share in a second. And they're always harmful even if they're even if it's something small and was meant to be a joke and it just landed wrong or was an inappropriate joke, they're always harmful because they do perpetuate negative stereotypes. They can impact that employee's sense of belonging. And the bias that that microaggression is, you know, demonstrating, particularly if it's from someone who's a superior to that employee, that can impact their review. It can impact their promotion, can impact their ability to be thought of for a structured assignment or included in key meetings or viewed as sort of a go to resource. And, again, some of that may be unconscious, but it's really important to take a hard look at not just what have you experienced, but what may you be doing that could inadvertently be a microaggression or even more consciously be a microaggression and make sure that you interrupt that, that you kind of cancel that for yourself, that you learn from that and figure out a better way to make sure that that language and that behavior isn't happening. In terms of the way that microaggressions can affect employees, there are a lot of different things here. I'll just highlight a handful.

There's a definite psychological impact, and I think that's probably one that is the most lasting and where you feel the most, you know, compounding of that. And oftentimes, that's because these microaggressions obviously don't just happen in the workplace. They happen happen out in the world all day long. You know, I think of a colleague of mine who's a transgender woman. And while she's, you know, completed her full transition, her voice still, you know, sounds a little bit more masculine. So anytime she goes to a drive through or was on a phone call with some with a new person, a lot of times she's still called sir. And, you know, and that's happening just she's sort of just showing up in the world as herself, but, you know, that's a microaggression that has a significant impact. It can make you self conscious.

It can make you feel unsure of yourself. It can make you feel unsafe. It can certainly be, you know, a trigger for deeper trauma, especially if you've had, you know, larger aggressions happen against you. This can be just sort of a constant reminder that, you know, the world doesn't feel fully safe based on that identity. Related to that, stress and anxiety, of course, happen. Feelings of invalidation. If it's happening at work, you can have a lot, you know, big plummet in your job satisfaction. You don't feel like you belong.

You don't feel like you're seen for, you know, fully who you are and valued for fully who you are. That can lead to, you know, poor engagement, greater turnover. And, of course, all of this results in strained relationships because anyone who experiences a microaggression, you you start to be on your guard. You put your wall up to protect yourself, which is a natural response, but it you know, that makes it really hard to then engage with your teams and and feel fully comfortable in the workplace. And, of course, you know, it's again, it continues to reinforce harmful and negative stereotypes, and we wanna make sure that we're, you know, doing everything we can to get away from that in the workplace and and, of course, outside of the workplace as well. But, you know, they do create a significant barrier to inclusion at work, and we wanna make sure that we're doing everything we can to address them. So I'm gonna list a couple of common microcrashions that happen in the workplace just to, you know, help help this really land. You may have have seen them.

Some of these things happen or heard some of these happen around you. So I'll just give you a handful of examples. Expecting a female team member to always be the one to take notes or to do cleanup at the end of a meeting or to be the one to organize, you know, social events. Not pronouncing or spelling someone's name correctly, particularly if it's somebody who where their name might be, you know, affiliated with their cultural background. Not taking the time to figure that out is a microaggression and and making sure that you're doing the right pronunciation and introducing them correctly to other people. Holding events that are centered around alcohol or maybe a sport that only a handful of people can play. Also, you know, events that are scheduled at times that aren't you know, may not work for every employee, whether it be based on, you know, religious reasons or family obligations or just a need for personal time or could be medical issues or other things that they need to take care of. Assuming an older employee is not tech savvy.

We see this a lot. Sometimes it does come out as a joke. Those comments do still hit pretty hard. So important to remember that. Asking where you are where are you really from to a person of color or where is your family really from? That's one I see and hear a lot. Bringing in food that's not accepted for for some religions or dietary restrictions without providing alternate options. This is an easy one where people sort of fall in the habit of continuing to order from places they've always ordered and not thinking through, you know, do we need to provide a vegetarian option? Are there other things that we need to be careful about? Do we have people with celiac disease or just different things to make sure everyone can participate equally in that? And then the last example I'll give, and I'm always just cringe when this happens, incorrectly calling an employee the name of someone of the same race who or maybe who shares the same disability. So confusing two people.

Let's say you've got two employees who are wheelchair bound and you've swapped their names. You know, it's an indication you're not taking the time to get to know them for who they are and making sure that you're identifying them correctly. So those are just, you know, very common ones that we see in the workplace. You know, there are many more out there, but just wanna give you some illustrations of some of the ways that these show up. So I'm gonna give you three questions as we close to consider within your workplace so you can have a little reflection on this and hopefully take some action. The first one is how can we create comfortable, timely, and effective ways to address the microaggressions we observe? So again, back to the fact that this can be really uncomfortable for the person who has experienced the microaggression to bring it up. Are there ways are there things that we can put in place, structures, policies, practices, resources to make it easier for this reporting to happen, and also so that people who maybe observe it but don't experience it directly also have a way to step in and be helpful, be an ally, be an an upstander for that person. Second question is how can we create an environment where employees feel safe safe coming to us when they've experienced or observed a microaggression? So again, sort of building off that first question, this is more the sentiment and feeling around it beyond the process or the policy.

You know, how do we ensure that that will be held in privacy and also handled in a way where the person who has, you know, sort of committed the offense of the microaggression is coached and in an in a way that isn't necessarily shaming or blaming, but gives them an opportunity to learn better. And then the third one is what norms can we establish for everyone to follow when they see, hear, or experience a microaggression? So if you think back to some of the examples that were maybe related to events or meetings or social gatherings and get togethers, Those are really easy ones to create some norms or standards around and just setting those up and having those followed pretty consistently also makes it easier for that to then extend into other places and spaces where these microaggressions can be happening. So I hope this has given you a little deeper level of information on microaggressions and in particular ways to really combat those in the workplace. And that's a wrap. I'm Michelle Bogan, and that's your DEI Minute for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review. If you ever have questions, please visit our website or send us an email.

You can also sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Links to everything can be found in the episode notes. This episode was produced and edited by Podgros with podcast art by our very own Jamie Applegate.