Navigating Power

A Personal Note

This guide is meant for anyone who has been put down or sidelined in the workplace because they are viewed as different. That includes BIPOC colleagues, transgender, gay, queer, neurodivergent, differently abled professionals, or simply the ‘other’ from the so-called ‘norm.’ A person with a southern accent can be treated as unintelligent in a northeast working environment, even when that person has the credentials, experience, insight, and kindness that outshine the rest of the office. BIPOC staff are sometimes brought on and appreciated as a source of increasing diversity, and then not included or actively excluded. Diversity does not equal inclusion.

This guide comes from years of observing how sidelined minority populations can be silenced and manipulated through observable and subtle behaviors, from casual racism to desk assignments to inclusion and exclusion in meetings. It is intended to help anyone typically left out of high-level discussions, or treated as if they are less than they are, find their strength in ways that attract power, trust, and support.

This guide is based on real conversations with sidelined colleagues who felt like they were being driven to distraction by alienation and derogatory treatment, from a lack of physical access to a lack of equity and inclusion. It is also based on research that identifies and supports sidelined populations as they navigate power and toxic behavior.

In supporting sidelined colleagues, it sometimes became clear that the person doing the undermining shared a similar background with the target. Just as women can sometimes undermine other women, this can be especially disorienting. The focus of this guide is the behavior aimed at you, so that you can identify it, separate yourself from it, and move toward your own professional aims.

Here you will find the five families of difficult workplace behavior, all research-based, with particular attention to how these behaviors land differently when you are navigating from a minority position. This includes the double bind, the tax of managing other people's discomfort with your competence, and the specific form of gaslighting that tells you the bias you experienced was your misreading. This guide is meant to help you find your strength, grow professionally, and move closer to your goals.

Take care of your professional self, and your higher self. The treatment you receive is not a verdict on who you are. It is information about the environment you are in.

The Five Families

Research shows there are multiple types of bad workplace behavior that undermine productivity, morale, and motivation. Some are related to each other. This guide groups sixteen behaviors into five families, not because they are identical, but because they land the same way and call for similar responses. Understanding the family helps you recognize the pattern before it escalates.

• 🔥The Aggression Family Entries 01 to 03

  Behaviors that cause real harm and rarely look like aggression.

• 🌀The Distortion Family Entries 04 to 06

  When your perception of events becomes the battleground. Documentation is always the antidote.

• 🔒The Control Family Entries 07 to 09

  Power through information, credit, and access.

• 🌫The Avoidance Family Entries 10 to 12

  Accountability-dodging and fog-manufacturing.

• 🪐The Orbit Family Entries 13 to 16

  Circling, inserting, and supervising without appointment.