Please note that this session was withdrawn and is no longer available in the respective programme. This withdrawal might have been the result of a merge with another session.
EOS3.2 | Strategies to promote positive workplace climate: identifying and responding to microaggressions
Strategies to promote positive workplace climate: identifying and responding to microaggressions
Convener: Blair Schneider | Co-conveners: Andrea Popp, Erika Marín-Spiotta, Taru Sandén, Olga VinduškováECSECS
Microaggressions are a targeted form of insult and demeaning action or language directed towards a group of people based on their identity. Microaggressions relay hostility and exclusion or "othering", exacerbating feelings of not belonging. Microaggressions are especially harmful because they can be experienced on a daily basis and tend to be more subtle than more overt exclusionary behaviors or forms of discrimination. They can occur among individuals (personal interactions or withdrawal of interactions), in a physical setting (for example, workspaces that are exclusionary) as well as at the institutional level (manifested through culture, beliefs, policies and structures). Recognizing microaggressions as harmful is important for identifying them when they happen and responding to them appropriately.

This session will focus on what microaggressions are and how they impact the workplace, interactions with our colleagues, productivity and overall wellbeing including mental and physical health. Participants will work through scenarios to explore the ways in which microaggressions appear and impact our personal and professional lives. The session also invites participants to work together and identify examples of how microaggressions are presented in different cultural contexts.