A Guide to Microaggressions in the Workplace

What Are Microaggressions?

Microaggressions are subtle, veiled, inferred, or implied attacks towards others that target their differences and vulnerabilities. Microaggressions are often directed at protected characteristics like race, sex, age, or neurodivergence. Forms of aggression may include spoken, written, or behavioural gestures that belittle and marginalise others. Different motivations can drive microaggressions in the workplace but they often include prejudice, racism, sexism, ableism, and homophobia. 

Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chester Pierce coined the term ‘microaggressions’ in 1970 to describe the casual racist insults and slurs that found their way under the veil of a society that no longer tolerates open racism. As an African American himself, Dr. Chester created the phrase to highlight how racism continues in subtle and insidious ways. Researcher Scott Lilienfeld also made a series of assertions about microaggressions suggesting how microaggressions exert an adverse impact on recipients’ mental health. 

Different Types of Microaggressions

Microaggressions can be verbal, non-verbal, or environmental. And they can be intentional and unintentional. Many forms of microaggression target an individual’s protected characteristics or reinforce the sender’s bias while casually insulting someone. Racist and xenophobic microaggressions are common and some people may not realise they’re doing it in their daily lives. Either way, they need to become aware of them to avoid any negative impact on others’ mental health. 

Let’s look at how some potential situations can play out. 

• Verbal: Types of verbal microaggressions at work can include making people feel ‘othered’ by asking BAME people where they come from or where they’re born soon after meeting them. This can make them feel inferior or different from white nationals. 
• Non-verbal: Examples of non-verbal microaggressions in the workplace include not considering religious or dietary restrictions when arranging team outings and scheduling meetings and events that conflict with religious obligations.  
• Environmental: Workplace structures, systems, laws, and policies can all feature microaggressions. And while some may be unintentional, biases in the structure of working environments can lead to an atmosphere of hostility and enforced compliance. 

There are also three subcategories of microaggressions that include the following: 

• Microassaults: Mocking jokes and direct insults count as microassaults since they overtly attack others. 
• Microinvalidation: Downplaying, minimising, and invalidating colleagues’ experiences within their protected characteristics counts as a microaggression at work.  
• Microinsults: Rude and careless assumptions about someone’s abilities based on their background, ethnicity, or other reasons are microaggressions. 

Examples of Microaggressions in the Workplace

We’ve already highlighted how microaggressions can manifest in three core ways. So let’s take a look at some workplace examples within each category:  

Verbal Microaggressions

• Mispronouncing someone’s name because you find it difficult to say.
• Laughing or making comments about someone’s accent. 
• Using racial stereotypes

Behavioural Microaggressions

• Ignoring or excluding neurodivergent staff from relevant meetings or group tasks. 
• Insisting people with neurodivergence behave in neurotypical ways such as looking at you in the eyes. 
• Assuming that someone with a disability needs help with their tasks. 

Environmental Microaggressions

• Designing ableist environments that don’t accommodate employees who have disabilities.
• Excluding particular groups from receiving promotions and pay rises. 
• Including dress codes that discriminate against particular body types. 

How Can Microaggressions Affect Workplace Culture?

Everyone has unconscious biases and has said something that offended someone they work with at some point. The problem is, that most people who commit microaggressions in the workplace won’t realise they’ve offended or hurt their colleagues unless it’s called out. And even then, we can all get defensive when feel we haven’t done anything wrong. And this can impede the progress we need to make in the workplace. 

The truth is that microaggressions at work lead to negative emotions and poor mental health. Poor mental health can stop employees from focusing on performing in their roles and doing a good job. In the long term, experiencing microaggressions at work can lead to chronic absenteeism and burnout. So, it’s important that everyone understands the implications and works towards reducing their biases, both in their individual interactions and within workplace systems and structures. 

Studies show how people from minority backgrounds have to work harder to maintain professional relationships in workplaces where unconscious bias leads to microaggressions. Plus, systemic bias can lead to promotions and pay raises that overlook differences such as neurodivergence that may put individuals at an unfair and unrecognised disadvantage. 

How to Deal With Microaggressions in the Workplace

Knowing how to deal with microaggressions in the workplace is the first step in changing a situation and improving employee wellbeing. And the change has to start on an individual and a business level.

As an Individual

Individuals can start by acknowledging any knowledge gaps and appreciating the likelihood they have unconscious biases they most likely grew up with. Starting from a position of humility can make it easier to handle situations where employees commit microaggressions at work when they didn’t intend to cause any fuss or harm. 

Key ways staff can handle receiving a microaggression in the workplace: 

• Stay calm and ask for clarification from the person who committed the microaggression, if you’re not sure of the intent behind the behavior. 
• Ask for a private moment with them to express how the comment made you feel. Make sure it’s when you feel calm.  
• Tell the other person why their behaviour was harmful or inappropriate and avoid any angry or personal attacks. 
• Consider documenting the incident and speak to your HR or people team to understand the most appropriate action to take. 

Key ways staff can react if they commit a microaggression in the workplace: 

• Accept criticism, even if you were unaware, and avoid reacting in defense when challenged.
• Listen to feedback with empathy and understanding. Resist the urge to say you didn’t mean it or defend it as a joke as this can minimise the other person’s experience. 
• Acknowledge the impact you’ve had and recognise the pain you caused to the other person. 
• Be sincere in your apology but don’t expect immediate forgiveness. It’s best to learn from the experience and be more careful in the future. Some people will forgive if the effort is there to apologise and make amends. 
• Ask questions to try to understand better how to avoid making the same mistake again. 

As a Business

Organisations of all sizes should ensure their HR and people teams have an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) policy. Such policies should include a people-first approach to relationships, team building, and internal promotions. They should also promote the use of positive language to encourage a more harmonious and inclusive workplace. 

Over a quarter of UK employers said the most effective way they could create more inclusive environments came from analysing language used in HR and communications policies. So make it a priority to use positive, inclusive language at all levels of your business. When you do, your staff teams and colleagues will mimic these positive words too.  

Other ways that can help to reduce the impact of microaggressions at work include: 

• Encourage EDI subgroups: Focus on the best ways to promote inclusivity for specific protected groups. For example, you could run a BAME group, a women’s group, and a neurodivergent group. Each one could allow individuals with these protected characteristics to air their grievances and shape future policy. 
• Offer mentorships: Set up mentoring programmes for individuals to work with experienced professionals who know how to navigate these workplace challenges. 
• Encourage support: Point staff towards supportive counselling services or remind them to take a mental health day to manage their feelings when experiencing microaggressions in the workplace. 
• Educate staff: Consider highlighting the issues during an all-hands meeting or internal staff training session.