Posts Tagged ‘#notablecareersmagazine’
From within to without: how stress and trauma appear in our bodies
Chronic phycological stress can lead to trauma in the body, hair and skin. Black women report higher levels of psychological stress than white women due to their intersectionality between race and gender. In addition, they face unique social issues, such as discrimination, finances, safety and family, which are all considered top stressors for Black women according to the Qualitative Assessment of Gender- and Race-Related Stress Among Black Women.
The Body
Over an extended period, stress can limit the body’s ability to adapt, causing damage to the central nervous system, cognition and learning, immune system functions, cardiovascular and endocrine systems and the gastrointestinal tract. There are signs Black women should look for in their bodies if they are experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety.
“Weight gain, skin breakouts, palpitations and breaking out in a sweat are pretty consistent signs among patients, especially women,” says Dr. Robin Moore, DO, a primary care physician in Houston specializing in women’s health.
Moore says that Black women have to do better about finding ways to minimize stress in their lives, including being more vocal about their needs and learning to set boundaries.
“We have to learn to say ‘no’ to things that don’t serve us.”
Workplace stress is a common complaint among Black women in her practice. “Black women especially have to wear many hats, they are overwhelmed and can never show weakness,” she says. “It can produce an unrealistic and unsustainable reality leading to burnout and anxiety.”
She adds that racism and discrimination in the workplace can affect physical health because it causes Black women to apply added pressure to be the best just to receive the same as others.
Moore says stress can lead to severe health issues like diabetes, heart disease, ulcers, stroke and inflammation. Thus, it is important Black women insist their doctors check their heart, thyroid, cortisol and blood sugar levels, iron and electrolytes.
The Skin
Stephanie Serlin recommends her clients wash their face 30-60 times per month. Serlin, an esthetician and owner of So Hum Skin in Houston, says that a good skincare routine is a relaxation tool that can relieve stress while also combatting breakouts.
“I believe in the phrase, ‘Black don’t crack,’ but when we are facing trauma, we need to do more than rely on our genes.”
Serlin says that congestion (pimples) can appear both underneath and above the skin’s surface, along with skin inflammation and puffy eyes resulting from anxiety disorders. The inflammation is caused by high cortisol levels—a sign of stress.
“A good skincare routine can be a way to decompress from the day, take a moment for yourself and relax.”
Getting a professional facial regularly with extractions and an enzyme peel can help get the skin back on track. If unable to visit an esthetician, home facials can be purchased and used with caution. “I am not big on suggesting home remedies because a lot of times when people want to pop their pimples, the pressure of their hands causes more damage to the skin.”
Steaming the face by placing it over a bucket of hot water and wrapping your face in a hot towel are ways to open the pores at home. Serlin also suggests Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay to detoxify the skin and Jan Marini products for a regular skin regime. She says it’s crucial to spot-test new products on the hand before applying all over the face to ensure no allergic or adverse reaction.
The Hair
Hair loss, breakage, shedding, oily or flaky scalp, and brittle texture may be signs your hair is telling you that you are depressed, or your stress levels are too high. Tecovia LaShe’ sees it every day with clients who come into her shop for braids and other protective hairstyles. LaShe’, stylist and owner of Crowned by She’ Hair Salon in Houston, says that her clients are often unaware of their stress levels until they sit in her chair.
Photo courtesy of Crowned by Shé Hair Salon
“I spend a lot of time consulting with my clients about the symptoms of depression and anxiety showing up in their hair.”
“They are often surprised how their hair is communicating that something is wrong,” she says.
She says many of her clients can leave hair issues untreated for long periods because they focus on coping and surviving. “Clients confide in me about their life issues, including workplace trauma and how much pressure they face in difficult work environments.” She adds that protective styles that cover the damaged areas are popular because so many Black women are dealing with the same issues.
LaShe’ helps her clients customize healthy hair regiments that may include special shampoos, conditioners, masks and oils. She may also suggest clients look to meditation, exercise, a change in diet or seek help from a mental health professional when she learns their struggles with mental health are not being treated.
“I listen and empathize because I am a Black woman, and I know how difficult life can be for us,” she says. “My role is to help them leave the shop looking better and feeling better than when they arrived.”
stylist and owner
Crowned by She’ Hair Salon
esthetician and owner
So Hum Skin
Black and White women in the workplace
The rise in racist activity showcased by white women in public spaces across the nation has caused an awakening in the role white women play in Black women’s oppression. In many of these incidents, white women—referred to as Karens—assault, hurl racist slurs, physically restrain, question, and taunt Black women while calling the police, further endangering the lives of the people they harass. When these white women are fired from their jobs for this behavior, others have come to their rescue, stating that losing their jobs should not be a consequence of their dangerous public outbursts. Many fail to realize that these dangerous behaviors hide in plain sight at work to the detriment of Black women’s careers and mental health. Moreover, they affect how Black women patients, customers, and business partners are treated.
“Our data tells us that Black women are having their worst experiences when they report to white women”
In light of these incidents, Black women are speaking more openly about how white women negatively impact their workplace experiences, derail their careers, and harass them in the office.
“I’ve dealt with many Karens in my career,” says Dr. Michelle Wilson, director of Evaluation and Learning at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. Black women cite white women as a major cause of workplace discrimination and harassment, which leads to anxiety, depression, job loss, and a mass exodus from corporate America, non-profit organizations, and academia.
“Our data tells us that Black women are having their worst experiences when they report to white women,” says Cierra Gross, founder of Caged Bird HR. She says it is ironic that white women benefit most from affirmative action, “yet they are perpetuating the most harm in the workplace.” This harm affects Black women’s ability to advance in the workplace and earn the wages they deserve.
Companies that advance gender as their diversity focus often miss the unique intersectionality of race and gender that affect Black women. This places white women at the forefront to benefit from these programs while Black women remain invisible. When white women receive power in the workplace as a result of these programs, it does not often translate to better opportunities for Black women, including overall culture improvement, job titles, positions, responsibilities, and wages.
Françoise Burgess writes in The White Woman: The Black Woman’s Nemesis that “Black women have accused white women of being duplicitous; while they proclaim sisterhood in theory, they are unable to overcome their racial prejudices in practice.”
Overall, although women are advancing in the workplace, white women continue to move up the corporate ladder while Black women remain at the bottom while being gaslit to “Lean In”, be more social and take on difficult tasks for lower pay. Many corporations believe that by advancing white women, Black women will also benefit, but that is not the case.
Author Vivian Gordon says, “Seldom attention is given to the extent to which white women benefit from the oppression of Black women.” She explains, “white women are saying to the white male power structure: Move over. We want to be part of the power structure. Black women are saying: ‘The structure is wrong.’”
In the LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company’s 2022 Women in the Workplace Report, only 44 percent of Black women reported feeling comfortable disagreeing with coworkers, whereas 57 percent of white women felt free to challenge or have differing views. This can translate into Black women not voicing their professional opinions or concerns about mistreatment for fear of retribution or white women’s tears.
“There is nothing more dangerous to a white woman than a competent Black woman”
A TikTok trend in 2022 showed white women’s collective ability to cry on command. This terrified many Black women who have been the victim of this weaponization. Black women are labeled aggressive, unprofessional and mean when white women cry unprovoked during professional communication exchanges. Luvvie Ajayi calls it the “weary weaponizing of white women’s tears.” Where they claim to feel personally “attacked” and “targeted” when questioned, given feedback or held accountable for their actions. Crying or playing the victim as a tactic allows others to focus on the white woman’s perceived trauma with sympathy instead of the actual trauma she may have inflicted on the Black woman, rendering them invisible yet again.
Writer Zora Neal-Hurston believed the modern relationship between Black and white women is patterned after the relationships on the plantation, where the white women used their power and white fragility to their advantage. “Thus, from the beginning, the seeds of resentment between Black and white women were sown…”
Slavery was the birth of this complicated relationship. Just as Black women can pass on trauma from that era, it is no surprise that white women may continue generational behavior patterns, whether intentional or unconscious.
Despite the early relationship formed during slavery, Black women do not feel unequal to or jealous of white women. “[Black women don’t have] envy for their accomplishments,” writes Toni Morrison. She goes on to argue that Black women also have no sympathy for white women’s perceived oppression.
On the contrary, Black women feel some white women are jealous and afraid of their power and abilities in the workplace. “There is nothing more dangerous to a white woman than a competent Black woman,” says Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett, director of the Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders in African Americans (PRADAA) at Kent State University in Ohio.
Gross says it is difficult to change this problem when Human Resources is a white woman-dominated field. In 2020, Data USA reported 76.8 percent of human resources managers were white, with 64.1 percent white women. Human resources is the department whose purpose is to create and enforce workplace policies. Bias and racism are dangerous in this area of the company. If Black women see white women as a threat to their careers, it could be a significant factor in why the issues seem exacerbated in the workplace with Black women feeling unheard and unsupported.
“Seldom attention is given to the extent to which white women benefit from the oppression of Black women”
In the book, Ambition in Black + White, Melinda Marshall and Tai Wingfield agree that Black women and their unique struggles are invisible in the workplace. Yet, their research found that, unlike their white counterparts, Black women are 25 percent more likely to have both near-term (50 percent vs. 40 percent) and long-term (40 percent vs. 32 percent) career goals and are more confident that they are qualified to succeed (43 percent vs. 30 percent) in a position of power.
Marshall and Wingfield also write that Black women are three times as likely as white women to aspire to a powerful position with a prestigious title, as they are often inspired by the matriarchs of their families who prevailed as breadwinners and showed their power and ingenuity without access to the higher levels of opportunities. This data does not correlate with the positions Black women hold or the perceptions that they lack initiative.
How do we fix this?
Racism in the workplace is not Black women’s issue. It is a white issue and something that has to be addressed if businesses want to continue to benefit from Black women’s undoubted contributions. At the same time, the responsibility for building a professional relationship between white women and Black women lies with white women who hold more power in the workplace; and who continue to choose whiteness over gender solidarity, as illustrated in the last two presidential elections.
There are Black women who are doing the work to bring these issues to light, from authors and activists to academics. Neal-Barnett teaches a course called The Psychology of Black Women, which has a waiting list. She says when white students come out of the course, they are blown away at how Black women experience and navigate the world. “Many of them are like, ‘We didn’t know.’ She says they never talk about Black women, so they are ill-equipped when they get into the workplace. “They have limited to no insight into what it means to be Black and a female. They don’t know, but they should hear enough cases after a while.”
Director of Evaluation and Learning National Fund for Workforce Solutions
director of the Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders in African Americans (PRADAA)
Kent State University in Ohio
founder of Caged Bird HR
Contact us
Q&A with Cierra Gross, founder and CEO of Caged Bird HR
Caged Bird HR is the first-of-its kind HR services company to provide employees access to independent HR support.
“As a black woman who left corporate America to start her own business, I can say that companies should be concerned. More and more black women are leaving corporate America in search of better lifestyles, less stress and overall peace in life.”
- What is the current role of HR with regard to helping to facilitate a healthy environment for Black women? And what should it be?
HR does a lot of different things for any organization. Compliance, strategic people planning and a healthy work environment for all employees is within HR’s scope. Studies tell us that black women have the worst experience at work, yet HR has not tried to solve this issue. I think there are many different reasons for that, and the most obvious is that to solve the problem, they would have to invest in trying to understand where the breakdown is happening. I don’t believe HR as a function is having the right conversations about many things, employee experiences being one of them.
2. What differentiates Caged Bird HR’s approach? How do employees use your services?
Caged Bird HR is a full-scale HR services company and the first to offer independent HR support directly to employees. Employees can speak to an HR expert not associated with their company for the first time to get HR advice and strategic guidance. Employees looking for a place to get safe, culturally competent HR support that is in their best interest and not their employer’s best interest can now get that support. The success of the business in such a short period tells us that this service is not only needed but valued in the market.
We also offer small business HR consulting. The benefit of our integrated business model is that we take the real-time data from our employee consulting function and use it to advise small businesses on how to execute HR equitably and become an employer of choice in the talent marketplace as a result. A lot of companies get HR wrong, but if you can get it right, companies will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
3. We are finding that Black women experience high rates of being placed on Corrective Action Plans. The SEC did a review of racial and ethnic disparities for Corrective Action because it is a nationwide problem in the workplace. Why do you think Black women are placed on these plans at a higher rate? What can HR departments do to eliminate this disparity?
We support employees across the country, most of which are black women. We see trends in the data, and the cases where the employee has been put on a PIP, formal or informal, usually start with employees not being set up for success. Unclear expectations, frequent manager changes in the first six months and failure to receive the benefit of the doubt are all themes we see when supporting employees through corrective action plans. To eliminate the disparity, I think HR has to be more involved and highly involved with employee onboarding. Currently, HR just welcomes you in and then leaves it up to your manager to onboard you appropriately. A high-touch onboarding experience with scheduled check-ins with HR to examine things like working relationships, manager expectations, etc, would be helpful.
4. Every Black woman we spoke with about their experience with Corrective Action said they were shocked they were even placed on a plan. Why do you think there is such a gap between a manager saying they’ve coached the employee while the employee had no knowledge they were being coached—hence, the shock of an action plan? What role does HR play in this communication breakdown?
Most employees are unaware of how HR works, and that’s by design. So, employees could receive all the signs that they are about to be put on a Corrective Action plan but just think that is normal performance feedback. Part of the problem is that managers are not equipped to give clear performance feedback. HR’s role is to equip managers to give clear feedback and ensure that managers measure performance equitably and objectively.
5. We surveyed Black women and asked them to think about their best and worst work experiences in the workplace and to tell us the gender and race of their manager at the time. Hands down, the best experiences were with white male bosses (98%), and the worst was with white women (96%). With a white male boss, they gave examples that they always got their full bonus, felt trusted to do their job and supported for advancement. With white woman bosses, they reported feeling belittled, micromanaged, bullied, overworked and unprotected. Many claim that when evaluating job offers, the gender and race of the boss is a significant factor in their decision to accept the offer. Should HR consider this when hiring, promoting and disciplining Black women in the workplace?
At Caged Bird HR, we collect a lot of data from employees that reach out to us for support. Our data tells us that employees have the worst experiences when they report to white women, which is kind of ironic if you think about it because, in the past decade or so, white women have become the poster children for diversity and inclusion. Yet, they are perpetuating the most harm in the workplace. Companies absolutely should consider race dynamics, and they should collect and analyze data on exited employees and what was the race of their managers. The problem is how do we solve this when HR is a white woman-dominated field? And HR would be the function to implement solutions to this problem. HR has to start holding managers at every level accountable for inequitable experiences and outcomes in their organization. That begins with collecting the right data and analyzing it.
6. In 2020, the Department of Labor reported that Black women’s participation in the labor force dropped significantly from 60.5 percent in 2019 to 58.8 percent, and many are leaving to start their own companies. We know that Black women are the most educated demographic in the U.S., are known trendsetters, great managers, and make significant contributions to all disciplines and industries. Yet, discrimination and inequitable treatment cause a continuous exodus. Should companies be worried they are losing this talent? In your experience, what are they prepared to do, if anything, to regain this talented segment of employees?
As a black woman who left corporate America to start her own business, I can say that companies should be concerned. More and more black women are leaving corporate America in search of better lifestyles, less stress and overall peace in life. As an employer of black women, I’m very cognizant of the work environment and culture we create internally at Caged Bird HR. I try to create a work environment that is supportive and safe for all employees. To be honest, I don’t think Corporate America is prepared to regain the talent because they aren’t even prepared to keep the talent they do have.
founder and CEO
Caged Bird HR