For work we are required to view various DEI videos occasionally. These videos usually show simulations of certain work situations and then comment or ask questions on them. In a recent one, the video shows what is obviously a business work meeting between a male supervisor and two subordinates, a man and a woman. As they start the meeting, the supervisor says to the woman, “Jane, would you mind taking notes”. She gives him a weird “what the fuck?” look but then silently seems to assent and start writing. At the end of the video, the narrator says that Jane was subjected to several microaggressions, including being asked to take notes “probably because she is a woman”. BUT, we have no idea what the supervisor’s motives were for asking her to take notes! In fact, the supervisor gave no reason why he asked Jane to be the note taker. Presumably someone had to take notes and it wasn’t likely to be the supervisor, so that left Jane as one of only two potential choices. I don’t see how we can say this was a micro-aggression without more information. Am I way off base here?
It’s a micro-aggression because he just assumed she would be the note taker. Why not just ask, OK, can someone take some notes?
The point is not that it’s hugely offensive, but it’s just the daily exhausting bullshit that women and minorities have to put up with.
A datapoint: I’m an American of South Asian descent working in Accounting & Finance for all of my 32 years. I have literally been asked to work on IT issues hundreds of times, despite having no more interest or ability in that area than anyone else in the room.
And in the dozens of times I’ve pushed back I’ve been told every single time that I should take it as a compliment.
So yes, exhausting.
So, Mighty_Mouse, where are you from? No, I mean, where are you really from?
Why wouldn’t the supervisor just take his own notes? How does he know the notes that he tasked ‘Jane’ with taking would be adequate for his purpose or meet his expectation? And if the concern is that the supervisor won’t be able to take notes and actively participate in the meeting, then by delegating he’s basically denying ‘Jane’ the same opportunity. Unless ‘Jane’ is there specifically for capturing minutes, he’s basically relegating her to being supernumerary.
As a white male, if someone tasked me with taking notes for them, I’d tell them to take their own ****ing notes. But I’m not constantly walking a tightrope of being judged as being a “diversity hire”, or questioned about basic competence, or expected by default to go fetch coffee or arrange sending a birthday card around the office. The point of the DEI trainings, as contrived and tedious as the videos are, is to give a context for why everyone does not feel free to just push back against unreasonable expectations or unstated bias, and all of the constant frustrations that they cause.
Stranger
I’m sure even a lame ass HR provided video has more context and explanation of the situation than that.
If they didn’t present any more information, then what they gave you was all you needed to know. Presumably the supervisor did this sort of thing without thinking. But someone else (or even him) probably asks Jane to bring him coffee, to clean the lunch area, etc.
No, you don’t have more information; perhaps Jane was the admin assistant to the supervisor and the meeting was between the supervisor and the third person. But we’re not given more information so she may be on the same level as the third person.
If Jane was a person who fills the role of “note taker” then she would not have made a weird face when asked to take notes.
I hope that the training didn’t just say “Never ask a woman to take notes” as the lesson, and went on to explain the equitable thing in this situation is to ask everyone in attendance if they wouldn’t mind taking notes.
Maybe she was a note-taking robot, trained to roll its eyes when asked to take notes. But, from the description, I imagine she was meant to be a peer of the other guy at the meeting.
“Presumably…”, “Probably…”, “May…”, “I’m sure…” All this speculating and assuming is projecting the same microaggressions at the boss as he is projecting onto “Jane”.
This is the answer. Based only on the info in the OP, it would be the same microaggression if he asked the male co-worker to take notes that way as well.
I agree; based only on what we’re shown, she is meant as a peer of the third person.
“Have you already left for the day? Are you home yet? Well, we need you to swing back in. There was a delivery of some heavy boxes that need to be put away in the storeroom.” (A case of ten reams of copy paper = 50 lbs.)
If that would piss you off, you can’t begrudge a woman coworker being pissed at taking notes, tidying up, wearing hose in the summer, etc.
The thing about mico-agressions is they usually seem pretty beneign when looked at it in isolation. It’s very easy to think it isn’t a big deal, and, really, in isolation it wouldn’t be a big deal, but when you frequently run into then it gets annoying.
Really? They just had you look at this video? No other material presented before or after?
I’m not all that shocked if it was done like that because many business just want to check off a box labeled “Made employees watch DEI video”.
Well, no, not me, but @We_re_wolves_not_werewolves, who opened the thread. I’m posting as if we had seen the video in question.
Assuming the 2 subordinates are in equivalent positions, I agree that the supervisor shoulda asked, “Which one of you will take notes?” But ya know, maybe the boss asked the woman to take notes because the man is a fuckup, and the boss couldn’t rely on him to take decent notes.
One of my most brilliant work hacks has long been - if I’m ever assigned to a team or workgroup, I immediately volunteer to take notes. Then, if things proceed and they need someone to do anything else, “Sorry, I can’t. I’m busy taking notes!” Also, by taking notes, you get to put YOUR spin on what happened and what was agreed on.
A wonderful combination of both getting out of work, while also exercising considerable power over the group.
Back to the OP - I’m wondering what sorts of “assignments” could be made that couldn’t be viewed by someone as a microaggression. What if he said, “Sue, take notes while Bob gets us coffee?”
Yes, except it would have been noticed by everyone as exactly that, a pointed way to demean someone.
What if he said, hey, someone take notes, I’ll get us coffee?
Your theoreticals don’t add anything to the scene. I mean, maybe they’re all super-intelligent aliens that are speaking another language that just happens to correspond to asking someone to take notes?
My point is, there’s no reason to add anything to this short vignette. The point is, women are often unfairly targeted to act as secretaries (and cleaning people, party organizers, etc.), not treated as equals. Think before doing that.
Does categorizing something as a microaggression depend on intent or perception?
Just because you often get shat on does not mean you are always being shat on.