Would this statement "Now sit tight and be quiet while adults are trying to solve the problems." be offensive???

Yes. That's definitely a "yellow" statement.

Does appearance factor on hiring?

Definitely. Appearance is the first thing we notice and attractive people get the benefit of our bias and people who aren't attractive experience the bias

How do we accommodate different ideas in a meeting in a respectful fashion?

Excellent question -- thank you! The goal for a meeting is to ensure all voices and ideas are heard. There should be a meeting organizer and that person is responsible for setting the agenda; keeping people to the agenda and then moderating people's participation at the meeting. Having clear rules of engagement helps keep guidelines to meeting participation, including letting everyone be heard and being respectful of competing and/or different ideas.

I work in an environment that is very male-dominated,and often find myself as the lone female in meetings. Often, I either have trouble getting a word in, or get cut off by my male superiors. What is the best way to deal with this?

You're describing a pretty common result of unconscious bias, e.g., getting interrupted and mansplained in meetings. We have a program about managing unconscious bias that would be helpful for your organization, but in a nutshell, here's a recommended strategy to run more inclusive meetings: 1. Have an agenda. 2. Ensure there's an owner/facilitator for the meeting who is tasked with stopping people from interrupting others. 3. Establish meeting protocols to ensure everyone gets a chance to be heard. For example, every participant gets 5 minutes as monitored by the facilitator. Three simple steps that will make a big difference. Good luck!

While I have not been subjected to sexual harassment I have times where my ideas are not acknowledged or that I am talked over by male colleagues. Do you have any resources to help handle these type of issues?

Sorry you're experiencing that. It sounds like you work with folks who need some tools/strategies to manage unconscious bias. Not hearing different opinions and/or talking over people are common symptoms of unconscious bias. Your employer will have access soon to a program on this topic, but in the interim, here are some good practices to follow in team meetings: 1. Have an agenda and a facilitator. 2. Create a process so everyone is heard in the meeting. 3. Ask the facilitator to ensure people don't talk over or interrupt each other.

Would it be considered "sex stereotyping" for a woman (with the same skill level and job position as her peers) to always be assumed to be the one who will take act as secretary and take notes during meetings?

What you're describing is pretty common (although problematic) and workplace experts are identifying that behavior as unconscious bias -- meaning we naturally assume some people will take certain roles based on our assumptions about their race, gender, age, etc. Typically, these unconscious biases do not amount to legally actionable discrimination situations, but they are still very problematic for individuals and teams. We actually have an online program about managing our unconscious bias to manage the impact of bias and improve team performance.

If a male employee talks down to or over a female employee who is his subordinate, and does so on a regular basis, is it yellow and slightly problematic, or orange and demoralizing and possibly skewing toward red?

Thanks for your question! It's a good one for everyone to see. In a situation where a male supervisor regularly talks down to or over a female subordinate, the actions are probably a result of unconscious bias and that's an orange behavior if the conduct is directed only at female employees and not male employees. At a minimum, that type of conduct will de-motivate and frustrate some of the employees. If people are frustrated enough, it could trigger someone to file a claim.

Age discrimination- How is it that many or even most employers require date of college graduation on applications? To me that's a blatant means to age discrimination, which I have experienced. Same thing for actual dates of prior employment.

Most job candidates and employers are moving away from that practice for that exact reason. By including graduation dates and dating employment history, it opens the door to unconscious (or explicit) bias. Other than providing dates on your last job or two, everything else is irrelevant. Unfortunately, it takes society a while to see what doesn't work well and the impact on certain demographics before creating a new best practice and/or a law to address the social impact. In the case of age bias -- the relatively recent "best practice" is to not identify graduation dates. Hope that's helpful.

A male coworker constantly refers to a female coworker as "she" (as opposed to name) even she is in the same meeting while refers to other male coworker by name. Which category this falls into?

While it's difficult to assess any situation without all the facts and details, it sounds like it could be an example of unconscious bias where someone feels more comfortable working with, and connecting with people of one gender -- and much less comfortable working with people of another gender. In the situation you describe, someone should bring it to the man's attention that he's familiar with people on the team, yet doesn't name the female coworker or treat her with the same familiarity as he does the others. He may not even be aware of what he's doing. Hope that's helpful.

I feel like marital status in discrimination is often though of as effecting working moms or people with families. I feel discrimination because people know I am childless and single and often expect me to stay late or finish projects with things with their children come up. my needs (mostly medical) arent given priority in these situations and I am often feeling over worked.

Please know -- this is (unfortunately) a common situation. Here's a suggested practice when co-workers or managers appear to de-prioritize your time because you're single and don't have children: Let the manager and team know that you sympathize with colleagues that have less flexibility in their schedules due to family commitments BUT you don't believe it's fair for you to bear the impact of their scheduling restrictions and there should be a way to evenly distribute the workload so it's fair for everyone. Bring it up before you're upset and while you can message it in a productive, healthy way.

When someone interrupts your thought or idea, what is the best way to circle back or stop that from happening?

Thanks for your question! Just let your colleagues know when you need time to focus and finish a project. Just being honest and direct should make it an easy communication.

Unconscious Bias Training Course for Employees

Name: Unconscious Bias
Availability: InStock

Recognize and Prevent Implicit Bias at Work

Course Video Preview

A manager unconsciously assigns an employee as their personal assistant just because she is organized. Leaving the team member feel they can't share their own ideas.

In the workplace, explicit and implicit biases exert their influence on a daily basis. These subtle biases operate unconsciously, aiding in quick decision-making. However, they can wield an unjust impact on our perceptions of others, often without accurate information or proper context. Unconscious biases present significant challenges in recruitment and other pivotal decision-making processes, with consequences ranging from mild to severe. These biases give rise to inequities in the way we perceive and interact with colleagues of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and other characteristics. Unconscious biases have the potential to influence promotions, task assignments, after-hours activities, and various other day-to-day business operations. It is important to base judgments on tangible actions, words, and accomplishments rather than on unconscious assumptions.

Course Description

Gain an in-depth understanding of unconscious bias and its impact on your organization with our online Unconscious Bias training program. Our course helps employees recognize their unconscious biases and how they can lead to biased and discriminatory decisions and behaviors toward others. We equip learners with the tools to make better people decisions, essential for building inclusion in the workplace. This introductory course serves as a baseline measurement for employees' inclusion skills and precedes our inclusion skill-building lessons. Start your journey towards creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace today with our Unconscious Bias training program.

Key Concepts

How unconscious bias influences our decisions and actions.
For employees, common examples of behaviors that help some people and hinder others, including how tasks are assigned and who gets heard in meetings.
For managers, guidance on who gets recruited and hired and who gets recognized and advanced.
The importance of awareness of different perspectives and empathy for others.
How to spot mistaken assumptions and missed opportunities in daily interactions.
Practical strategies to minimize the impact of unconscious bias and how to recognize and set aside old patterns to become more inclusive.
A new method for minimizing unconscious bias: The Two Gear Method, which teaches employees how and when to slow down and use the Big Gear of critical thinking versus allowing fast, intuitive assumptive thinking (Little Gear)

Course Features

Access to our Anonymous Ask the Expert tool
Rich video scenarios based on real-world events
Built-in employee sentiment surveys

50+ Machine Translation Options
Optional program timer
Policy acknowledgement tool
Extensive customization options

Lessons

Building Stronger People Decision Skills

Overview of Unconscious Bias

The Negatives of Pattern Matching

Microaggressions

Tools to Minimize Unconscious Bias

Who Does More Tasks?

Who Gets Heard in Meetings?

Who Gets Recruited and Hired?

Who Gets Ahead?

Managing Unconscious Bias

Provide Your Feedback

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From ‘Ask the Expert’

Emtrain’s Ask the Expert feature enables users to ask questions about compliance, bias, harassment, and diversity & inclusion as they come up. It’s all confidential, and answers are sent straight to their inbox. Search the questions below and see the Experts answers.

Is the bagel question answer different if you are Jewish? (Orange vs Red).

We all have to be careful when teasing or making comments about personal characteristics that apply to us individually... because we are apt to be less sensitive since the remarks do not personally offend us. The key is to know your audience and be careful if you're in a larger group with folks you may not know well.

One time I was chatting with some friendly coworkers and one mentioned she went to the beach over the weekend. I smiled and asked if she was working on her tan (she was dark-skinned). She gently pushed back, and I of course backed down immediately. I never made another joke like that again. How out of line was I? It was certainly well-intentioned, but it has bothered me since.

Thanks for showing your concern. I think complimenting someone on their tan is pretty harmless and not many people would take offense.

Is it considered yellow behavior if a manager (higher than you but not your direct boss) is consistently saying negative things about you to his cohorts during executive meetings that you cannot attend to defend yourself?

Making negative or critical remarks about someone to an executive team could be yellow --but it depends on the context and all the details of that particular situation. However, if you believe a senior leader is making critical remarks about you, then you may want to consider requesting a meeting with that person to try to understand the person's intentions and perspective, AND let the person know the impact of those comments on you. Poor communication and inaccurate assumptions are often at the root of workplace conflict, so it's a good practice to focus on good communication first, before looking for other ways to address workplace conflicts.

How do you control your subconscious?

You cannot. But -- you can put some protocols in place that will provide guard rails to what your subconscious is likely to do.

Pertaining to section 11. I have never met or known anyone who believes women should not be ambitious or assertive. Where did they come up with the idea that this is a pre conceived notion that people have?

I believe the message in that section is that it's relatively common for women to experience bias when they are assertive or aggressive.

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What's Covered

Course Experts

Managing Bias Training

Recognize and Prevent Implicit Bias at Work

Course Video Preview

Course Description

Key Concepts

Course Features

Lessons

Building Stronger People Decision Skills

Overview of Unconscious Bias

The Negatives of Pattern Matching

Microaggressions

Tools to Minimize Unconscious Bias

Who Does More Tasks?

Who Gets Heard in Meetings?

Who Gets Recruited and Hired?

Who Gets Ahead?

Managing Unconscious Bias

Provide Your Feedback

Relevant Courses

Inclusion Training

Disability Protections (ADA) Training

Preventing Workplace Harassment Training — US

Complementary Microlessons

How to Intervene With Skill

Culture Fit & Inclusive Recruiting

Two Gear Method Decision-Making

Recommended Resources

The Two Gear Method: How to Use Your Big & Little Gears of Thinking

Actionable Ways to Build an Inclusive Workplace

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