Reena Dutt
Jul 27, 2017 · 8 min read

Unconscious Bias in At-­Will Environments

My most recent position working for a tech company in Los Angeles was an exciting and tremendous experience. With a majority female employee base, and a predominantly female management team, the CEO of this company had made strides for the betterment of the organization. He had encouraged transparency between managers and employees, with the goal being that change happens from the inside out. He had pulled this company out of debt within two years, and was now setting it up for global expansion. I was beyond happy to work in a creative Video Development and Production team with a progressive corporate entity.

For having such a wonderful experience, it was ironic that at 10:10am on International Women’s Day I would be in a termination meeting, staring at an empty chair in front of me. I remember feeling the cold table under my hands, my deep breaths and my unusually calm voice in this unexpected situation. The room was white, clean, basic; A stark contrast to my brown Indian American skin. My 38 year old Caucasian, male boss (let’s call him “John”), the Director of the Video Team, had just left the room before I had even said one full sentence.

The most striking part of this termination story was the woman who sat to my right. “Jane,” our head of Human Resources, was like a Little House on the Prairie character — a kind, warm, wholesome Caucasian woman in her early 50s. She sat silently next to me. She had encouraged him to leave.

This is the same woman I had much to be grateful for — she supported me when I took a leave of absence to accept a film producing fellowship, and she comforted me with warm words of empathy when my father passed.

The week prior in my Performance Review, John had applauded my work ethic and skill set. Prior to the review, I had taken on more tasks the preceding few months in different facets of our Video Development and Production Team due to my direct manager’s maternity leave. In her absence I was given the opportunity to explore and excel at more artistic tasks under John’s guidance. I was excited to put my eight years of film producing experience and over 14 years in the film industry to work for the company, and executed these tasks well.

During the performance review, immediately after applauding my skillset and application of it within our team, John accused me of slander. To my surprise, Human Resources had received complaints about me from fellow employees — including that I made statements about John stating he lacked the skillset necessary to do his job. Without telling me what the statements were and without giving me an opportunity to respond to the statements that were reported, he proceeded to tell me how hurt he was and cut our Performance Review meeting short.

I never said that John lacked the skillset necessary to do his job. In the month leading up to the review, I had spoken with two of the female managers in the office to ask for advice on how to approach a manager who had a subtle yet harmless bias regarding women, and did not seem to have the production knowledge to scale our video team as was expected by our CEO. In the same breath, I had applauded his tremendous ability sell and pitch video concepts to clients and colleagues alike. I had knowledge he could use, such as video production and implementation of production practices, but how was I to be able to contribute to this company I loved working for, when my recommendations [and those of other women] were ignored and minimized? It was negatively impacting our small and overworked team.

Maybe I made a mistake to assume that it was safe to speak with other female managers. Maybe I was misguided. However, I was thrilled by how receptive these women were in their sympathetic response and words of encouragement to “always ask, if I need anything in the future”.

Now I was sitting in front of an empty chair with no opportunity for a moderated conversation with John in the presence of HR. My concerns and suggestions had been reported as “energy depletive” and in his interpretation, slanderous. The only people I spoke with about this issue for advice were my female role models, so I am sure that they reported my comments to him.

At-will employment has its advantages and disadvantages, and in a diverse country where unconscious bias surrounding race, gender and social norms is present, the employee is often put in an unfair position. A company has no obligation to give an employee a warning, or to verify complaints and context. My termination was based on “misconduct,” even though none existed.

At the termination meeting, Jane said, “Look at how distressed he is. I don’t want him to go through any more of this.” She was more concerned about the manager’s distress in terminating my employment than a female employee being given the opportunity to respond to unknown complaints, or even the fact that John had a bias against women. That did not seem to concern her in the slightest. “I’m shocked. This is a side of you I never have seen before,” Jane told me. What I had done was point out that I hadn’t been given the chance to speak up about a situation for which I had not been given details, and I was confused about why I was being denied that opportunity.

I hadn’t thought that this criticism regarding ‘misconduct’ would come from a woman. I wasn’t sure what the misconduct even was. Was it that I spoke up about wanting details? Was it that I had wanted the privilege to also voice my side of the story? Was it that I came across as aggressive when proposing improvements for my department? Was it that I complained about unconscious bias in the first instance?

Unconscious biases are extremely difficult to correct, and even more difficult to prove under the anti-discrimination statutes. In an at-will environment there are very few protections in support of the employee to defend themselves. In such cases, it is very difficult for an outside entity to verify whether a termination was for a “Good Cause”, or as a result of unconscious bias, unless the bias lends itself to an observable practice or pattern.

Unconscious bias, and social culture more generally, results from a combination of values, norms, and societal influences that together define the habits and belief systems of an individual. A broad example is a belief that individuals should be married by age 40. How many movies have as their premise an agreement with a platonic best friend, “If we’re both single by the age of 40…”. This set up of a plot point wouldn’t work if social culture in America didn’t reflect that being single by age 40 was a problem to begin with. It can be an idea that is so ingrained in our upbringing that we don’t even realize it’s part of our cultural fabric.

Unconscious biases are complicated and statistically immeasurable. Despite the majority female employee base at my former company, the company is run by female managers and executives that shy away from speaking up as do their male counterparts. They do not attempt to garner equality in the workforce. They do not speak up for pay increases. They are the first to offer taking notes in meetings when their male counterparts sit back. It does not make a difference how many women are hired into executive level positions at this company, because there are no vocal individuals looking to balance the figurative 80 cents on the dollar in terms of the behavioral gender gaps.

The concept of “knowing your worth” was one that dominated the female management team. On multiple occasions, female managers would tell their subordinates that the only person who needed to know their value was themselves, and the company will take notice and offer a raise when it became apparent. Asking for a raise based on market value or workload was rarely successful, and according to our CEO and the managers working below him, frowned upon. The women giving this advice were educated, savvy, resourceful individuals.

The company has successfully employed a majority of women who do not strive to equalize the gaps in gender equality through public acknowledgement, thus the company has no fear in increasing the numbers of women in leadership positions. In turn, the risk of a woman asking for any recognition is mitigated. The company has successfully found a loophole in statistical gender equality that works to their advantage — social culture. It is effectively “pink-washed.”

Whether my termination was at cause of a bruised ego of a male boss who was uncomfortable with a woman who had more knowledge base in one facet of his position, or the unease of women whose feminism did not match my own, I will never know. Some women have been penalized in the workplace for behaviors that are identified as ‘normal’ for their male counterparts. Just ask Ann Hopkins, formerly of Price Waterhouse. If a man describes an issue in company process, he’s troubleshooting; if a woman describes the same issue, she’s complaining. Male comments are interpreted as assertive; female comments are perceived as aggressive. These are gender norms that are not biolologically defined as masculine or feminine, but heavily fall into one category or the other according to the society we live in. It’s simply innate in one’s social culture.

So how can an at-­will state, in good faith, also be a advocate of anti-discrimination clauses in the workplace? If I had been a male employee, would my stating a problem within our department’s growth and offering solutions to scale our video team in order to fill my manager’s knowledge gaps been interpreted as promotion material having approached executive staff with possible solutions, or would it still be considered misconduct? Would the females I had confidentially spoken with taken my vocal approach to improving my department through eight years of experience as an opportunity to better the company, or would it still be interpreted to HR as slandering my manager?

Although articles have been published showing progressive statistics revolving around women in the workforce, the unanswered question is what are the results of personnel being hired and promoted within those entities? Is the company confident enough to be transparent with their employee base about the percentage on the dollar for women in the same positions as their male counterparts, or people of color put against their Caucasian counterparts? Are women in entry level positions being promoted in as timely a manner as men? If not, why are the discrepancies still an issue, and is the company taking proactive steps to change that?

Prior to my exiting the room at the end of the termination meeting, Jane asked me if I was realistically happy there. I thought it was an odd question considering the many times I applauded this organization to her and colleagues. Maybe this was a part of the exit process. I remember smiling and saying I love it here, but not if I am to work for an individual who would rather fire dedicated team members than to have a productive conversation that would help the department move forward.

She felt safer protecting John, as though he was her child who had just been bullied. Did my speaking up and voicing concerns for my department feel aggressive? Was the strength in wanting to communicate with my manager not fitting in with a preconceived stereotype of my demographic? Would she have handled this situation differently had I been Caucasian, or male, or a Caucasian man, and represented the behaviors of my gender that she was more comfortable with? The only takeaway I have is since it wasn’t my performance, inherited social culture, gender expectations, and unconscious bias are likely the unspoken influences that led to my termination.

Dutt is a film producer in Los Angeles, her mission being to normalize diversity and bring voice to the unheard. This article was written in consultation with Law Offices of Angel J. Horacek in Culver City, California.

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