New hire thinks pushback is due to implicit bias

[Anonymous]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice about handling a tricky workplace situation. We recently hired a new senior manager, who is a black woman. She is supervising a diverse team, and has been breaking a lot china in her first few months on the job, leading to a lot of unhappiness and complaints from her staff. She has also been ignoring various institutional processes. She is very smart and very capable, but she tends to spend a lot of time telling everyone else how important and smart she is, and not a lot of time listening.

As her supervisor, I finally had to have a hard conversation with her, a very similar conversation to one I have had over the years with many others, in which I told her she’s great, and has a wonderful ideas, but that we need her to do a little bit more listening and checking in with people before she charges ahead on things. She did not take this well, and responded with a long email saying that she thinks the pushback she is getting, both from her staff, and from me, is due to the implicit bias people have about working with a black woman in a leadership position. (I am a white woman.)

I don’t for a moment dispute the fact that black women face all kinds of micro aggression and bias that white men or women would not. And, of course, telling someone their behavior is affected by implicit unconscious bias is a non-rebuttable proposition. However, this woman is doing what I have seen many other people, black, white, male, and female, do over the years, which is alienating everyone around her by grandstanding and being heavy-handed, instead of turning her staff into her allies and supporters.

Any thoughts on how to respond to her? On the one hand, I don’t want to do anything that further convinces her that all criticism is coming out of unconscious racial bias on the other hand, I don’t think the existence of racism in the world should be a free pass for anyone to be a jerk in the workplace, which is frankly what she is doing. Advice?

[Anonymous]

I have no advice, but I had a friend in private industry who was in this situation. My friend's trying to be fair and helpful made her look weak. Upper management was afraid to fire the diverse hire. Ultimately, my friend who had been in the VIP program with the corp suddenly got sent off a random job in a dying part of the corp. (She was quickly hired away as an industry expert and ultimately has made far more money than had she said.) Once my friend was no longer trying to fix and manage the situation with the woman the president of the division (also a woman) had to get involved and the new hire was promptly fired. No help to my friend, however.

I guess the advice would be: make sure you are making your supervisors aware of the situation. My friend thought she could handle it on her own and simply fix things so that everyone (upper management and new hire alike) would be happy. New hire was the one going above friend's head to complain about her boss.

[Anonymous]

Be much more hands on moving forward, don’t give her much leeway and micromanage if you have to, document everything. I would not entertain the racial assumptions at all but rather respond with very specific examples of where she’s screwing up. Tell her to take complaints outside of her job description to HR if she continues.

[Anonymous]

Fire her immediately

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be much more hands on moving forward, don’t give her much leeway and micromanage if you have to, document everything. I would not entertain the racial assumptions at all but rather respond with very specific examples of where she’s screwing up. Tell her to take complaints outside of her job description to HR if she continues.

I had to deal with two new hires like this. They would not take feedback and did not improve their performances. Both were let go during probation and both claimed bias due to race. One grieved the probation and filed an EEO compliant. It was investigated and there was no action taken and they were released.

The second one sued us. They lost. We had to go to trial. Everything was documented and there were numerous witnesses who corroborated the manager’s assessments. There was nothing unreasonable about the manager’s requests or feedback. We had good policies and good legal counsel.

I’m sorry this is happening. Document everything about the specific feedback you’re giving in writing or in person and keep all emails.

You may need help from HR sooner rather than later.

[Anonymous]

I’d probably talk to an HR person immediately. You are walking on glass in this situation.

[Anonymous]

I just want to point out that sometimes what looks like "being a jerk" in one culture is actually just being straightforward and normal in other cultures. I when you document you need to be able to point toward very specific behaviors/events.

This is unfortunate; I wish she could see an example of how it's done right before she gets let go, but what do you do.

[Anonymous]

These situations, or the fear of them, are what do create implicit bias in the HIRING process. Not that anyone will admit to it. But once the hire has been made it's incredibly difficult to jettison a genuinely bad employee.

[Anonymous]

You need to talk with HR and your manager. She's setting you up for a lawsuit.

[Anonymous]

Is there any way in the world for a white woman to say to a black woman, "Please at least consider the possibility that this is not about race and gender, but that you are behaving in a way that would be perceived negatively regardless of your race and gender"?

I feel like... yes, racism is real. Yes, many many many black women and men struggle against negative stereotyping in the workplace... but the existence of bias and racist stereotypes does not mean it's okay to blame all criticism on racism!

But I feel like if you say that, it's just taken as more proof of your unconscious racism.

[Anonymous]

Can you find her something she wants more than what she has now, with less supervisory responsibility?

If she is being heavy branded with staff, it’s just going to create more gremlins for your organization to deal with.

Watching it happen right now at mine. Bad manager, needs to be removed, has a serious persecution complex, blames everything on everyone but herself.

[Anonymous]

Bring in HR and Legal, begin documenting all interactions with her, and formalize the feedback you provided in writing, not to argue with her; I'd ignore her assertions about your feedback being based in impermissible Title VII considerations, but would set forth exactly where she is falling short of expectations, what she needs to change in order to succeed, and the availability of any resources which may assist her (which she'll likely not take advantage of, bolstering your position if you do need to take definitive action against her in the future). People who are self-important know-it-alls rarely change. They are insecure. Just focus on performance; if she alienates colleagues, she'll be ineffective in her role.

[Anonymous]

Any black folks out here on this board with suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any way in the world for a white woman to say to a black woman, "Please at least consider the possibility that this is not about race and gender, but that you are behaving in a way that would be perceived negatively regardless of your race and gender"?

I feel like... yes, racism is real. Yes, many many many black women and men struggle against negative stereotyping in the workplace... but the existence of bias and racist stereotypes does not mean it's okay to blame all criticism on racism!

But I feel like if you say that, it's just taken as more proof of your unconscious racism.

OP said this manager has diverse staff who are complaining: OP you are their voices in this situation. Depersonalize it. Look objectively at what is going on. Is there high turnover? Are there grievances and EEO complaints? Is the work not getting done? I’m sorry you are in this situation. I’m sorry for this woman. I’m sorry for her staff too.

[Anonymous]

It is unfortunate that these sorts of people really hurt the general diversity-hire-desire by many corps. It makes people afraid to hire a diverse candidate for fear they'll end up in this situation.