Do your coworkers have you calculating your clap-backs?
At the very least, it’s their job to give people resources and help them access information, but a petty coworker doesn’t care.
In fact, this person may force you to overthink their inappropriate language and inappropriate behaviors.
I used to spend hours ruminating over exclusive encounters, re-reading and rewriting emails for fear of how people would perceive me. Would they call me aggressive, angry or bossy? (All microaggressions about Black women).
I was wasting a lot of time deciding how I would work around coworkers who engaged in bias, exclusionary and toxic behaviors in the workplace.
These folks went out of their way to offend me. I couldn’t help.
It think it would be so much easier to give a one or two word response rather than to tell me,”In the future you can do xyz… or “It’s not my job to xyz for you”
The petty coworker never stops to think of their “read” is really worth your time or energy (or theirs for that matter…) They never stop to calculate their clap-backs!
Continuously having to think about giving a colleague grace for their bias affects employee productivity. The person is making you have to think too hard and exert too much energy about whether they meant to cause you harm, are engaging in an implicit bias act or are simply just having a bad day… Language and behaviors have an impact on the workplace culture. It’s time to ask them to stop and if the inappropriate language/behavior persists, you have the option to file a report.
