In recent years we’ve come to equate the term ‘soft skills’ as behaviors that minorities, or other marginalized people should learn in order to ‘fit’ in a predominately white workplace environment. It’s one of those terms that the dominant culture might use, like “civilized behavior” that conjure up images of people who aren’t knowledgeable about how to behave in certain social environments.
The burden is generally on the people of the minority or marginalized group to prove that they can speak or behave according to expectations.
But having to make these types of behavioral changes in order to fit-in, or advance on the job isn’t just restricted to new hires or those new to office work. For people of color, the necessity to hide our authentic selves in the workplace is a consistent and ongoing practice.
Seldom does the members of the dominate group feel any obligation to self-examine or modify their own individual behaviors to better accommodate the inclusion of those who have traditionally been locked out of their workspace.
Soft Skills are similar to ‘code switching’. The term code switching has been adopted to describe what people of color, or other marginalized groups, often have to do in order to be accepted in their work environment. In a November 2019 article in the Harvard Business Review, researchers concluded that code switching behavior among people of color is often necessary for acceptance and advancement. But it takes a great psychological toll on individuals.
“At this point in my career, code switching feels natural. I’m not even cognizant that I do it anymore” said a 30- year- old black researcher.
This feeling of the need to ‘code switch’ can begin during the initial interview. The person being interviewed may feel more intense scrutiny of their dress, speech, writing or other qualifiers to see whether they can measure up. One example of this is African American’s use of the English language.
These distinctive differences in intonation and speech patterns may be considered, by the dominant culture, signs of ignorance or limited intelligence regardless of the individual’s level of education.
In 2012, a video of President Barack Obama entering the locker room of the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team went viral. In the clip, viewers can see that there’s a clear difference between how Obama greets a white assistant coach and how he greets the black NBA player Kevin Durant.
This moment inspired a sketch on Key & Peel in 2014 that played off the idea that Obama “switches” how he greets people depending on whether they’re white or black.
This un-necessary hypersensitivity to how people of color are speaking and behaving at work can generate undue and burdensome pressure. It’s helpful for organizations to create environments for employees to be themselves, and to invite them to share their concerns about their ‘fit’ in their work place. I believe that we’re getting there, but so far it’s not nearly enough!
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