In his biting satire A Modest Proposal, author Jonathan Swift suggested that poor people in Ireland could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the elite. His satirical hyperbole was meant to mock hostile attitudes towards the poor at the time. Not all were amused by his shocking essay back in 1729, least of all the upper class.
In response to the mounting complaints about inconsistent and unfair workplace policies, I’ve decided to take a page from Jonathan Swift, adopting my own “modest proposal”: Concrete actions for organizations and their leaders to take in creating an unfair, inequitable and dysfunctional workplace. (And sadly, many leaders are taking these actions already, whether intentionally or not!)
- Return-to-office policies: Be sure to make different rules for certain people, roles or locations, and keep your rationale a secret. Let some people ignore the rules and show up for work whenever they want, while holding others accountable for strictly adhering to the policy. Confuse managers by letting them guess what latitude they have in giving their employees flexibility and then blame managers if they can’t read your mind.
- Learning and development: Restrict your mentorship programs to certain groups or employees and keep the membership criteria vague so you can’t be accused of favoritism or discrimination. Approve training programs for some employees, ignoring others despite their interest, benefit, and parallel roles. (Better yet, keep the training on the low-down. Share learning opportunities with just some people and hope others don’t find out.) Identify people who will attend external conferences and seminars and deny others for no apparent reason. Place an arbitrary limit on the time and money employees can devote to training each year, but make an exception for some, just because.
- Career growth: Limit your leadership development programs and job rotation opportunities to a select few based on your subjective assessment of who’s considered “high potential.” Give frequent opportunities to some to gain visibility with senior leaders by attending their team meetings, making presentations or establishing themselves as “thought leaders,” while repeatedly telling others they’re not quite ready.
- Promotions and salary increases: Plan these merit rewards in advance based on who you like best and value the most, without consideration of their actual performance. Assuming you have a limited pot of money for your whole team, allocate the most to those likely to cause a fuss if they don’t get a significant bump. Give special consideration to those who have taken advantage of professional development opportunities, which happen to be those you favor. (See Learning and Development and Career Growth.)
- Innovation and risk-taking: Remind people that innovation means taking risks, even if it means failing the first, second or more tries. Congratulate and support certain people if their experiments fail to bear fruit and penalize others if they don’t achieve their goals. (If anyone complains about disparate treatment, mention something about “acceptable risks” without giving specifics.)
- Coaching and feedback: Find reasons to blow off 1:1 meetings for those who don’t seem to be worth your time. Keep rescheduling until they get the message. Provide support and praise to those closest to you, literally and figuratively, and assume that others will do just fine on their own. And if they don’t, well, that’s on them if they didn’t reach out and ask for help.
- Sharing information: When big news breaks, share it first with people closest to you. Wait until the next team meeting to let others know. They’ll probably hear it from someone else anyway.
- Speaking up: Encourage candor and openness, unless people surface an issue that you prefer not to think about or act on. Support some people who dare to speak candidly (mostly those you like best or agree with), while ignoring (or sometimes penalizing) others who do the same. When people become animated about a topic, accuse some of being too emotional or angry so they’ll shut down, while applauding others for their energy and spirit.
These may sound like exaggerated examples of “what not to do,” but in reality, I witness this kind of inequitable treatment all too often. What makes this behavior more troubling is that most managers believe they treat employees fairly, while many of their employees strongly disagree.
How can leaders practice what they preach when it comes to equitable and fair treatment of all employees?
Review your stated values, policies and principles as a team, using examples to ensure shared understanding. For instance, if the value is honesty, discuss exactly what this means about how, when and where team members and leaders can discuss contentious or difficult topics safely. If it’s innovation, make sure everyone’s clear about the latitude employees have in trying new ideas without repercussions.
Discover where the gaps are greatest between your behavior as a leader and your employees’ perceptions of fairness. Depending on the level of trust, you can identify these gaps by using employee survey data or conducting employee focus groups or interviews with a neutral party. You can also find gaps as a whole team, assuming a certain level of trust, starting with one or two areas perceived as most inequitable.
Explain your rationale for any intentional disparities and be prepared to make adjustments based on your team’s feedback.
As a team, brainstorm ways to treat everyone more equitably. This might mean modifying existing policies, putting new practices in place, or giving teams more latitude for interpreting certain policies.
Few things rankle a person more than sensing that they, or others in their group, are being treated unfairly. Rather than waiting until feelings of anger and frustration reach a boiling point, start the conversation sooner than later. You may be surprised and humbled by what you hear.
Links
Downloadable resources from Guided Insights
- Team Principles Guidelines – downloadable PDF
- Values in Practice: Assessment and Action Planning Workbook – downloadable PDF
- Triage De-Escalation Worksheet – downloadable PDF
Past Communiques from Guided Insights:
External Articles
- Download an excellent report from the Future of Work Alliance: Toward a More Humanized and Just Future of Work
