I’m Puzzled by Your Incompetence: An Experiential Exercise For Understanding Workplace Microaggressions

Abstract

Microaggressions are subtle acts, omissions, or verbalizations that chip away at another person’s dignity. Although typically, microaggressions have been applied to members of marginalized groups, we consider it to be more broadly applicable to all employees in a workplace. This paper introduces the idea of microaggressions, situates it in the aggression literature, and discusses its impact and how to deal with it. All of these serve as the conceptual grounding for the experiential exercise which follows and that helps learners become better aware of the elements and impact of workplace microaggressions.