Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
I’ve been reading a lot about unconscious bias lately. It’s been fascinating to link from one article to the next, discovering research that provides a new lens to some of the work environments I learned about when conducting my own research of employees who quit their jobs. I heard plenty of stories from ex-employees who quit jobs where harassment, discrimination and violation of workplace policies were the norm instead of one-off incidents.
Even when blatant acts of discrimination occur, if the people empowered to do anything about it (management) are unconsciously biased, they are likely to downplay the problems. “I have never seen anyone being discriminated against in our workplace.”
Of course you haven’t. If you’re not aware of a bias how could you see it?
Unconscious bias becomes a double whammy when it leads to bad behavior that is unchecked or worse, defended, because of the lack of insight. The effects can be seen in workplaces where raising a complaint can result in retribution, which is then also justified and disguised as performance problems. The victim is victimized twice. “You’re being too sensitive. You’re not a team player.”
Ugh.
What can you do when you see problematic behavior at work that others don’t? How do you eradicate a problem when people aren’t even aware that a problem exists?
You can speak up. I’m encouraged by the number of articles 
and blog posts I’ve read on this topic. This LinkedIn post by Rachel Thomas was especially insightful, and it is where I learned about the Project Implicit site that I refer to below. You can ask your workplace to implement employee training, like Facebook and Microsoft recently did.
You can also seek to uncover your own blind spots and then audit your behavior. Harvard hosts the Project Implicit site where individuals can test for hidden biases. I took multiple tests about gender, race and religion. Some of the test results disappointed me because they contradicted what I consciously tell myself about my beliefs. But that’s the point – to learn something I didn’t know about myself. Now I can monitor my thoughts and actions to reduce the potential that I will act on a negative bias without realizing it.
If you’re interested, the Project Implicit site describes their methodology and you can decided for yourself if you think your test results are valid.
Thank you. I appreciated your link to Anna Kegler’s article as well. One of the things that frustrates me is that many times when I read about this type of topic, I feel beat up about how biased we are and how bad systems are. I appreciate having specific steps that can take to work on my biases.
Thanks for the comment, Brian! That is a good point. I hope there will be more articles about unconscious bias that people don’t put on the defensive and instead get people curious enough to want to learn more.