- Microinequities aren’t microaggressions
- Impact of microinequities
- Examples and fixes
- Starts with management
“Microinequities” is a broad spectrum of workplace behaviors that have the potential to devalue employees, hurt morale and destroy culture.
It’s important that HR address the issue.
After decades of employee listening tools collecting data from workers around the world, most of the findings on what drives employee engagement points toward something our parents or caregivers taught us early on – we want to be valued.
But it’s not that simple.
We want to spend the majority of our waking hours around co-workers and managers who show us how we are valued. The other side of that coin is avoiding personal interactions that make people feel devalued.
Microinequities aren’t microaggressions
We shouldn’t confuse this with the more popular term “microaggressions,” which usually refers to common verbal or behavioral slights that communicate negative attitudes towards groups that could cause someone to feel demeaned because of their race, gender or identity.
Microinequities might include some microaggressions, but I think of it as any action that makes someone else feel lesser – and it’s usually done without malicious intent. That means that managers and co-workers might be letting microinequities become pervasive in the workplace just out of sheer ignorance of how to identify them.
So how do you find out whether this is happening in your workplace? If communication or meeting behavior is creating a psychologically unsafe environment – meaning that people do not feel secure enough about their position to speak up – then that’s a culture that desperately needs an action plan to correct it.
Impact of microinequities
The impacts of fostering a culture where microinequities are common can be devastating to every part of the company. When employees feel their opinion isn’t as important as others, they will also feel that their contributions have less value.
Our research shows that experiencing regular microinequities can lower self-esteem and affect work performance – employees with low self-esteem are much more likely to leave. In particular, microinequity behavior toward women – like assigning them note-taking tasks when it’s not in their role, interrupting them in the middle of meetings or giving them pet names – are top predictors of who will stay and who will leave.
The cost to the enterprise of high turnover rates are well documented. So alerting managers to the microinequities problem – and getting them to take action against the behaviors – isn’t just good management practice, it’s key to supporting the company’s long-term financial health.
There’s a second impact of microinequities that might be even worse than low self-esteem: Lack of access to opportunity.
If a manager constantly undermines and undervalues an employee in the presence of other employees, other employees might also begin to devalue that employee. Reputational damage can happen at an unconscious level, without someone being aware that another person’s value is slowly ticking down in their estimation. Devaluing behavior leads to actual loss of opportunity because that employee may not be taken seriously when they contribute ideas, be picked for the next big project, or trusted with career-promoting initiatives.
Examples and fixes
Sometimes the abstraction of describing this with a big word obscures the everyday nature of the behaviors, so here are some common examples of microinequities you might find very familiar. I’ve paired them with some “antidotes” to the behavior.
Starts with management
These are only a few of the small things managers can do to fight microinequities. Individually they may not seem like much, but taken together and practiced regularly, they are powerful tools to change culture.
It all starts with managers. They should be asking some pointed questions about each of their reports, questions like:
- What am I personally doing to set this person up to succeed?
- What might be happening to this person on a daily basis that could make them feel undervalued?
- Am I practicing purposeful listening when my employees talk, or just thinking what I should say in response before they are finished?
I have 500 reports… are you really asking me to do this? It’s a common refrain at senior levels of the world’s largest companies. There’s no doubt that trying to keep track of every individual’s well-being and psychological safety is impossible for anyone with a team of more than 20-25 people.
But the first step is defining microinequities so an entire organization’s managers know what they are and know what to do about them when they’re observed. The next step is to use new listening technologies to scale up your program to eradicate microinequities. We no longer need to rely only on anecdotal or manager-centered reports. AI-powered technologies that give managers and employees feedback in real time, rather than waiting every year for an annual census survey, are changing the employee listening landscape.
Micro-Injustice ni tabia ya kazi ambayo inaweza kuharibu wafanyakazi, kuharibu maadili na kuharibu utamaduni. Ni muhimu kwamba HR kushughulikia suala hilo. Baada ya miongo kadhaa ya vifaa vya kusikiliza wafanyakazi kukusanya data kutoka kwa wafanyakazi duniani kote, matokeo mengi juu ya nini husababisha ushiriki wa wafanyakazi huelekeza kwa kitu ambacho wazazi wetu au watunzaji wetu walitufundisha mapema - tunataka kuthaminiwa. Lakini si rahisi hivyo. Tunataka kutumia muda wetu mwingi karibu na wafanyikazi wenzetu na wasimamizi ambao wanatuonyesha jinsi tunavyothaminiwa. Upande mwingine wa sarafu hiyo ni kuepuka mahusiano ya kibinafsi yanayowafanya watu wahisi wamepunguzwa thamani. "Hatupaswi kuchanganyikiwa na neno maarufu zaidi ""microaggressions,"" ambalo kwa kawaida linarejelea maneno au tabia ya kawaida ambayo huwasiliana na mitazamo hasi kuelekea vikundi ambavyo vinaweza kusababisha mtu kuhisi kudharauliwa kwa sababu ya jamii, jinsia au utambulisho wao." Microinequities inaweza ni pamoja na baadhi ya microaggressions, lakini mimi kufikiri ya ni kama hatua yoyote ambayo inafanya mtu mwingine kujisikia chini <unk> na ni kawaida kufanyika bila nia mbaya. Hii inamaanisha kwamba wasimamizi na wafanyikazi wenzake wanaweza kuruhusu microinequities kuwa pervasive katika mahali pa kazi tu nje ya ujinga wa jinsi ya kutambua yao. Unawezaje kujua ikiwa hii ni kweli katika eneo lako la kazi? Kama mawasiliano au kukutana tabia ni kujenga mazingira ya kisaikolojia salama - maana kwamba watu si kujisikia salama kutosha kuhusu nafasi yao ya kusema juu - basi kwamba ni utamaduni kwamba desperately anahitaji mpango wa hatua ya kurekebisha. Uharibifu wa Micro-Injustice: Kuendeleza utamaduni ambapo Micro-Injustice ni ya kawaida inaweza kuwa na madhara kwa kila sehemu ya kampuni. Wakati wafanyakazi kuhisi maoni yao si muhimu kama wengine, wao pia kuhisi kwamba michango yao kuwa na thamani kidogo. Utafiti wetu unaonyesha kuwa uzoefu wa kawaida wa microinequities unaweza kupunguza kujithamini na kuathiri utendaji wa kazi - wafanyikazi wenye kujithamini chini wana uwezekano mkubwa wa kuondoka. "Hasa, tabia ya ""microinequity"" kuelekea wanawake - kama kuwapa kazi za kuchukua maelezo wakati sio jukumu lao, kuwakatiza katikati ya mikutano au kuwapa majina ya pet - ni utabiri wa juu wa nani atakayebaki na nani atakayeacha." Gharama kwa ajili ya biashara ya viwango vya juu vya mzunguko ni vizuri kumbukumbu. Hivyo kuonya wasimamizi kwa tatizo microinequities <unk> na kupata yao kuchukua hatua dhidi ya tabia <unk> si tu mazoezi mazuri ya usimamizi, ni muhimu kwa kusaidia kampuni ya afya ya muda mrefu ya kifedha. Kuna athari ya pili ya microinequities ambayo inaweza kuwa hata mbaya zaidi kuliko kujithamini chini: Ukosefu wa upatikanaji wa fursa. Msimamizi akimdhoofisha na kumdharau mfanyakazi mbele ya wafanyakazi wengine, wafanyakazi wengine wanaweza pia kuanza kumdharau mfanyakazi huyo. Uharibifu wa sifa unaweza kutokea katika kiwango cha unconscious, bila mtu kuwa na ufahamu kwamba thamani ya mtu mwingine ni polepole ticking chini katika makadirio yao. Kuondoa thamani ya tabia huongoza kwa kupoteza fursa halisi kwa sababu mfanyakazi huyo anaweza kuchukuliwa kwa uzito wakati wao kuchangia mawazo, kuchaguliwa kwa ajili ya mradi mkubwa ijayo, au kuaminiwa na mipango ya kukuza kazi. Wakati mwingine, abstrak ya kuelezea hii kwa neno kubwa huficha asili ya kila siku ya tabia, kwa hivyo hapa ni mifano ya kawaida ya microinquities unaweza kupata ya kawaida sana. Ive paired yao na baadhi ya antidots kwa tabia. Hii ni moja tu ya mambo madogo ambayo wasimamizi wanaweza kufanya kupambana na microinequities. Kwa mtu mmoja mmoja, huenda hazionekani kuwa mengi, lakini zikichukuliwa pamoja na kutekelezwa kwa ukawaida, ni zana zenye nguvu za kubadilisha utamaduni. Yote huanza na wasimamizi. "Wanapaswa kuuliza maswali muhimu kuhusu kila ripoti yao, maswali kama vile: ""Mimi binafsi ninafanya nini ili mtu huyu afanikiwe?""" Ni nini kinachompata mtu huyu kila siku ambacho kinaweza kumfanya ahisi kwamba haathaminiwi? - Je, mimi hufanya mazoezi ya kusikiliza kwa makusudi wafanyakazi wangu wanapozungumza, au ninafikiria tu kile ninachopaswa kusema kabla hawajaisha? """Nina ripoti 500 za kujadili na mimi, naomba nifanye hivyo." Ni msemo wa kawaida katika ngazi za juu za makampuni makubwa zaidi ulimwenguni. Hakuna shaka kwamba kujaribu kufuatilia ustawi wa kila mtu na usalama wa kisaikolojia haiwezekani kwa mtu yeyote na timu ya watu zaidi ya 20-25! Lakini hatua ya kwanza ni kufafanua microinequities hivyo mameneja wa shirika nzima kujua nini wao ni na kujua nini cha kufanya kuhusu wao wakati wao ni kuchunguzwa. Hatua ya pili ni kutumia teknolojia mpya za kusikiliza ili kuongeza mpango wako ili kuondoa microinequities. Hatuhitaji tena kutegemea tu ripoti za hadithi au za meneja. Teknolojia inayotumia AI ambayo huwapa wasimamizi na wafanyikazi maoni kwa wakati halisi, badala ya kusubiri kila mwaka kwa uchunguzi wa sensa ya kila mwaka, inabadilisha mazingira ya kusikiliza ya wafanyikazi.