Part II – Workplace Biases: How to Better Protect Ourselves
In our previous blog post, we explored three common workplace biases: Prove-it-again, Colour Blindness, and Tokenism that impact the experiences and career trajectory of women of colour.
Make sure to check out our blog to learn more about what these biases are, how they show up in the workplace, and examples of each.
In this second part of this blog series, we want to equip you with a few approaches and strategies to deal with these biases in order to protect ourselves better in the workplace. An important part of finding ways to deal with triggers that come as a result of these biases is to ensure that we don’t carry the negative emotions and trauma into future environments. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all, and not all the approaches below will be practical for everyone, but we hope it’s a start.
Illustration by Liu Liu
Bias #1 – Prove-it-Again
Let’s refresh our memory. Prove-it-again bias is when women feel they have to prove themselves over and over again. Amongst women of colour, this is even more apparent because we also face racial biases that discount our accomplishments and performance. Here are some suggestions and approaches we recommend. They've helped us deal with this bias, and we hope they help you too.
2. Keep a Record of Accomplishments
WOC are expected to consistently re-establish their presence, authority, and credentials in the workplace. In many cases, they are denied promotion despite being overqualified for the opportunity. This gets exhausting over time.
A practical approach to this is to keep a real-time record of your accomplishments and successes. Unfortunately, people are likely to notice or remember mistakes and forget successes, so this ensures that you are prepared to remind them when the time comes. This can be during performance reviews, ad hoc feedback sessions, or in team meetings where you need to clarify your contributions. Keep in mind the following things when creating your list:
Make sure that you update the list consistently.
Include objective metrics you’ve met.
Source and include the compliments you’ve received.
2. Write a “Why I’m Great” List
Proving yourself over and over again can have a deep impact on your mental and emotional health. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we're enough and that our work is valued and our credentials respected.
An approach I like to use is to write a list of all the ways that I bring value to the team and organization. You can do this at work when you feel triggered because of an incident, or another time when you feel more emotionally stable. You can even do it right now – take out a pen and paper and write five reasons you think you’re a fantastic employee. Internalizing our greatness in a system that tells us we’re not is really crucial.
Hot tip! If you’re stuck and can’t find great things to say about yourself, ask a close friend, colleague, or confidant to do it instead.
“Proving yourself over and over again can have a deep impact on your mental and emotional health. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we’re enough and that our work is valued and our credentials respected.”
Bias #2 – Colour Blindness
If you recall from the previous blog, we defined colour blindness as the concept that race-based differences don’t exist, often heard when people say “everyone is equal here, we don’t see race”, ignoring the reality of systemic racism that racialized individuals experience.
This is a tricky one to find solutions for – let’s get one thing straight, it is not on women of colour to solve colour blindness. In fact, it takes a lot out of you to have discussions with those who don’t validate that systemic inequalities exist, where some people benefit at the expense of others. That said, here are some strategies to navigate when this does occur.
1. Therapy Sessions
I’ve had many frustrating and heated conversations with individuals about whether sexism or racism exists, and how it impacts those on the margins. Every single one left me feeling upset and discouraged, and for months, I would dwell on what was exchanged.
Talking it through with a psychotherapist allowed me to get the anger and disappointment out of my system, and get validated that I wasn’t going crazy. Putting a name to what I was feeling helped me understand that the onus is not on me to convince others that systemic inequalities exist, but that they need to do the work to better understand their privilege and positionality.
2. Don’t Always Engage
What therapy and hindsight also helped me with was embracing the thinking that not everyone deserves my energy. These conversations can be soul-crushing, and I have gotten better at evaluating which contexts and individuals are trying to push their own agenda, versus those who are genuinely interested in having a productive conversation and adopting a growth mindset.
Bias #3 – Tokenism
This last bias is about being a token, or the ‘only’ one from a social group, which results in scenarios where minority individuals are expected to speak on behalf of their community, and their actions are perceived as representative of a whole. In the workplace, token hires are instances when a woman of colour feels like the company hired them as a diversity hire, and not based on their experience and accomplishments. Here are some strategies to use when tokenism shows up.
1. Code-Switching
Code-switching refers to when individuals from underrepresented groups adjust their language, syntax, behaviour, appearance, and actions to conform and fit into the standard set by the dominant culture.
Now, we're not promoting code-switching. Our ultimate goal is to create workplaces that don't require us to police our own identities. But this is about granting ourselves the permission to adjust and manoeuvre so that our safety and well-being are protected and prioritized.
2. Find Your Circle(s)
Thousand&One was founded on the premise that a supportive community can help women of colour navigate many of the biases and challenges they experience in the workplace. Tokenism is something that hits hard, and community and peer groups can create psychological safety that can help women of colour speak about how tokenism impacts them.
Additionally, something I have found that can combat tokenism is to appreciate and celebrate my culture and identity, something that can be truly therapeutic and powerful when done with groups of people who experience similar struggles.
“Thousand&One was founded on the premise that a supportive community can help women of colour navigate many of the biases and challenges they experience in the workplace.”
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: there is no one-size-fits-all. While we have shared experiences as women of colour, we also have our own stories, struggles, and challenges. These are some strategies and approaches that have helped us navigate the ruthless and toxic workplace structures we find ourselves in. We hope they can help you too!
What did we miss?
What are some ways you have dealt with these workplace biases? If something has worked for you in the past, share with our community below!
Coming up Next
Ever heard phrases like “Be You” or “Lean In”? While we understand the intention behind such language, we also know that as Women of Color, it’s more nuanced than that. Next month, we’ll discuss the power of language and unpack words and phrases that are not applicable to marginalized women, and can even be harmful to their progress.