People sanctioned for expressing feelings at work

Every office has unspoken social norms about how workers are expected to feel in a given situation and how those feelings should be displayed.

They are known as “feeling rules” and they are so ingrained in our social and work interactions that we rarely pay attention to them.

For example, when a colleague announces that they are engaged, the rules of sentiment dictate that you should show happiness. When your boss says that the team just lost an account, the appropriate feeling might be frustration or even anger.

Work-related disappointment is often tolerated, especially if it is combined with the intention of finding a solution.

But not all displays of emotion are treated equally, experts say what is and isn’t considered ‘appropriate’ may depend on the worker.

We already know, for example, that women who speak out in a professional setting can be perceived as belligerent, while a man behaving in the same way would be seen as assertive or even a leader.

However, research suggests that not only is there a gender gap in sentiment rules, but there is also a racial discrepancy.

The data suggests that when black workers display emotions, their feelings may elicit a different response compared to white workers displaying the same emotions.

This forces employees belonging to ethnic minorities to exercise self-control in the workplace, to prevent colleagues from misinterpreting their emotions in a way that negatively affects their careers.

This generates an increase in their emotional charge.

You realize in the look

Over the years, multiple studies have shown how feelings rules apply differently to men and women.

The consistent conclusion is: People judge emotions like anger, sadness, and frustration much more harshly when displayed by a woman than by a man.

Researchers have found that women who cry at work can be seen as weak or unprofessional, while people assume that men are dealing with external factors behind the tears.

Similarly, men who display anger can often use it as an effective management tool to appear capable, while women are seen as inept or even strident.

In a 2014 project, 170 college students watched a video of lawyers’ closing statements in a court case. The participants were asked to render a verdict and rate the competence of the lawyers.

Angry litigants received the highest scores; angry litigants were given the lowest. In addition, the students attributed the women’s anger to their emotional state, but the men’s to the situation itself.

It is difficult to dissect the precise cause of the gender disparity, but entrenched stereotypes They are often to blame, as well as the lack of exposure to see women in leadership positions, rather than supporting positions.

More recently, research has shown a similar phenomenon in terms of how people perceive the emotions of ethnic minority employees in the workplace, compared to their white counterparts.

Even when workers adhere to “standard” feeling rules, evidence suggests that minority workers, particularly black employees, must also manage the emotions they elicit in others or risk negative consequences.

Robert, a black media executive based in the UK, says that if he gets too excited in a professional setting talking about a project, those around him often interpret his excitement differently than he intended.

“I can see in their body language and in their eyes that they are a little afraid of me when I go into full passion mode,” says Robert, whose last name is being withheld to protect the security of his job.

“I think, especially as a black man, a lot of people are just afraid of you. You raise your voice a little and you see the look. People don’t say anything, but you see a look of fear.”

The researchers say that experiences like Robert’s happen all the time in workplaces and in everyday interactions.

A study published in April by Stephanie Ortiz, a sociology professor at UMass Lowell, near Boston, shows that sentiment rules differ substantially depending on the worker’s ethnicity.

Ortiz conducted interviews with staff at LGBTQ colleges in the US The questions focused on how administrators perceived their emotions when staff attempted to talk about issues of racism and discrimination experienced by students who trusted them.

The analysis revealed that white workers who displayed anger at administrators on behalf of students were seen as having “passion for their work.”

But staff members from other ethnic groups were seen as “radical” and “not seen as team players when they expressed anger” at microaggressions or prejudice on behalf of students.

A Mexican interviewee reported that her white supervisor’s outbursts were considered passionate, while she was told to be less emotional because “it scares the neighbors.”

The researchers conclude that unconscious bias and internalized racism often mean that minority workers’ anger and similar emotions are perceived in majority-white spaces as more “threatening” than similar emotions of white workers.

Consequently, minority staff often had to temper their own emotions significantly in discussions of race and inequality, or risk being perceived as antagonistic.

“Otherwise, her own trauma would be seen as an unprofessional, forced agenda,” says Chad Mandala, a doctoral student in higher education at the University of Georgia who worked alongside Ortiz on the study.

Sociologist Adia Wingfield, in her research on the rules of sentiment, has shown that black workers regularly edit their displays of emotion, not because they are inappropriate, but because other people may misunderstand those emotions.

Wingfield argues that sentiment rules in workplaces weren’t necessarily set with ethnic minority workers in mind, so they’re more likely to be decoded incorrectly by colleagues, especially when stereotypes drive those interpretations.

And this can have significant negative impacts.

“If it were perceived that [los trabajadores de minorías étnicas] they’re angry, irritated, upset and frustrated, that would generally be a major problem, even if they weren’t necessarily angry, irritated, upset and frustrated,” says Wingfield, a professor at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, United States.

“But the perception of that, particularly from white colleagues, could often spiral out of control and create additional difficulties and challenges for them at work.”

“A daunting task”

The overall effect of the different way sentiment rules are applied to ethnic minority workers increases the emotional pressures on them.

Wingfield says workers need to combine “doing your job, adhering to those feeling rules, and making sure you have such self-control, being aware of how people might perceive you to prevent, and making sure you’re not giving cause for those kinds of perceptions.” , which, as you can imagine, is a daunting task.”

Not doing so, however, can have major consequences, Ortiz and Mandala say.

“All of our respondents talked about learning the rules from seeing other people experience the brunt of these rules or feeling them themselves,” Mandala said.

“So, it was learning what not to do because other people got laid off.”

However, Ortiz suggests that instead of ethnic minority workers having a responsibility to self-censor, workplaces should strive to become more inclusive.

The alliance and awareness of colleagues in workforces who may only have one or two minority workers in the group is vital.

“If you are one of the many and see that you are ‘just’ being attacked during a meeting or see that your emotions are not being legitimized, don’t keep that to yourself. Then in an email or in the hallway I was able to say, ‘Oh, by the way, I agreed with you,’” she says.

“You really need to step up.”

For Robert, controlling his emotions remains a common and unavoidable experience. Even after winning prestigious awards, he knows he has to tread carefully when he talks to other executives, potential donors or company heads—“chill out” as he calls it—lest his emotions be misread.

But he is also taking matters into his own hands. These types of workplace incidents inspired Robert to help underrepresented youth find a path into the media industry.

He hopes that contributing to a diversified workforce will lead to lasting change, so that workers from marginalized communities and their differences are fully accepted rather than simply “tolerated,” he says.

“I work with people who don’t have experience with other cultures,” says Robert. “It can be a little daunting for them to understand who you really are.”