McCann-Microaggressions in the Workplace: If They're so Small, What's the Big Problem?

Αρετή (Arete) Journal of Excellence in Global Leadership | Vol. 1 No. 1 | 2022

Figure 2 The Difference that Psychological Safety can make in the Workplace

Source: Author’s Illustration. This figure is modified from an exercise from the Psychological Safety Team Workshop (2021) and Amy Edmondson’s model of team culture. This anxiety can manifest as everything from “depression, fatigue, and anger to physical ailments such as chronic infections, thyroid problems, and high blood pressure” ( Gehrman, 2019, para. 4). Constantly being on the receiving end of microaggressions leaves people feeling psychologically unsafe as well as physically and emotionally ill due to the toxic culture they create. This experience is commonly described in the literature as “Death by 1000 Cuts”. For example, in this case, the issue for Asian and Asian American people isn’t being asked where one is “really from” once or twice. It is the accumulation of slights such as these that happen regularly and compounds over years and decades. Dr. Sue says that they are “constant, continual and cumulativ e” (Sue, PBS NewsHour, 2015, 3:51). A workforce filled with people of marginalized groups who come to work feeling psychologically unsafe with no sense

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