Research Guides: PBC Library: Microaggressions & Burnout

Reducing harm in the workplace

Microaggressions

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Defining microaggressions

While the concept of microaggressions became more culturally predominant in recent years, the term itself has been in use for several decades. Originally defined by Harvard psychologist Chester Pierce, microaggressions "describe interactions, whether intentional or not, that convey in subtle but powerful ways, negative messages about specific groups of people." (Ackerman-Barger & Jacobs, 2020) In more recent years, psychologist Derald Wing Sue expanded on the original definition by breaking it down into the following subcategories:

Microassaults: explicit attacks directed at a person or group of people;
Microinsults: generally unconscious or unintentionally harmful statements about a person which are based in cultural stereotypes and prejudices about marginalized groups;
Microinvalidations: statements that minimize or mischaracterize the lived experiences and histories of people from marginalized groups. (Ackerman-Barger & Jacobs, 2020)

In the same book, Sue outlines the real, material impacts of microaggressions, which lead to:

workplace burnout and breakdowns in retention;
mental illness, including depression and anxiety;
cognitive load that harms productivity and workplace relationships.

Further, it is arguable that microaggressions perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices when they are left unchallenged. For that reason, workplaces and workers ought to be prepared to identify microaggressions and know what to do when microaggressions arise (Sue, 2010). The following resources can assist with the identification of microaggressions, how to engage when microaggressions occur, and how to prevent their reoccurrence in the future.

Resources for defining microaggressions

Dismantling Everyday Discrimination: Microaggressions Toward LGBTQ People
"This book examines the microaggressions that LGBTQ people face on a daily basis, highlights their impact on mental health, and discusses ways mental health providers can help clients process and address microaggressions."
Let’s Talk About It: Addressing Microaggressions in Occupational Therapy Education
"This article identifies examples of microaggressions and suggests strategies to address implicit bias and microaggressions in occupational therapy programs."
Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation
"... a first-of-its-kind guide on the subject of microaggressions. This book insightfully looks at the various kinds of microaggressions and their psychological effects on both perpetrators and their targets. Thought provoking and timely, Dr. Sue suggests realistic and optimistic guidance for combating—and ending—microaggressions in our society."
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race
"Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence debunks the most pervasive myths using evidence, easy-to-understand examples, and practical tools."
Say My Name: Understanding the Power of Names, Correct Pronunciation, and Personal Narratives
"Names are a reflection of identity and often have personal meaning. The chronic mispronunciation of names can undermine one’s identity and be experienced as a microaggression. This workshop aims to provide historical context for names as well as resources for correct name pronunciation."
The Microaggressions Triangle Model: A Humanistic Approach to Navigating Microaggressions in Health Professions Schools
"This paper discusses the Microaggressions Triangle Model, which is a framework for understanding microaggressions from a human interaction standpoint. At each point in the model, the authors provide approaches designed to help recipients, sources, and bystanders construct responses that may allow for rebuilding. From a restorative justice standpoint, rebuilding gives all people involved the opportunity to restore their reputations and repair relationships. Rebuilding is about individuals and communities acknowledging and learning from the interaction as a way to promote a climate of inclusion in their organization."

Resources for responding to microaggressions

The 5 Ds of Bystander Intervention
"The 5Ds are different methods – Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct – that you can use to support someone who’s being harassed, emphasize that harassment is not okay, and demonstrate to people in your life that they have the power to make their community safer."
Addressing and Confronting Bias (Online Workshop)
This course offers an array of interventions that health professionals committed to addressing their own biases can try out and hopefully adopt. The suggested approaches focus on both conscious and unconscious biases. However, a greater emphasis has been placed on those interventions that address implicit bias, because it is virtually impossible to act on feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that are outside of one’s conscious awareness until they are brought into awareness.
Addressing Burnout in the Behavioral Health Workforce Through Organizational Strategies (SAMHSA)
"Burnout has physical and emotional consequences for individuals and impacts their work with clients and within an organization. To fully address burnout, organizations need to adopt strategies that improve their organizational culture and climate to modify the six drivers of burnout: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. This guide highlights organization-level interventions to prevent and reduce burnout among behavioral health workers."
AOTA: Uncovering Microaggressions and Facing Difficult Conversations
A group of slides from AOTA which provides definitions and OT resources for addressing microaggressions.
Becoming Active Bystanders and Advocates: Teaching Medical Students to Respond to Bias in the Clinical Setting
"Incidents of bias and microaggressions are prevalent in the clinical setting and are disproportionately experienced by racial minorities, women, and medical students. These incidents contribute to burnout. Published efforts to address these incidents are growing, but gaps remain regarding the long-term efficacy of these curricular models. We developed and longitudinally evaluated a workshop that taught medical students a framework to respond to incidents of bias or microaggressions."
Helping the learner to deal with microaggressions in the workplace: Individual, programmatic, and institutional‐level responses
"In this commentary, we will briefly review the definition of microaggressions, summarize the impact of microaggressions on trainees, provide a framework for managing microaggressions on an individual level when the patient offends the learner, and highlight strategies to mitigate microaggressions on a programmatic and institutional level."
Implicit Bias in Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review
Implicit biases involve associations outside conscious awareness that lead to a negative evaluation of a person on the basis of irrelevant characteristics such as race or gender. This review examines the evidence that healthcare professionals display implicit biases towards patients.
Microintervention Strategies: What You Can Do to Disarm and Dismantle Individual and Systemic Racism and Bias
"...delivers a cutting-edge exploration and extension of the concept of microinterventions to combat micro and macroaggressions targeted at marginalized groups in our society. While racial bias is the primary example used throughout the book, the author’s approach is applicable to virtually all forms of bias and discrimination, including that directed at those with disabilities, LGBTQ people, women, and others."
SAMHSA Providers Clinical Support System (PCSS)
" national training and clinical mentoring project developed in response to the prescription opioid misuse epidemic and the availability of pharmacotherapies to treat opioid use disorder. PCSS trains health professionals to provide effective, evidence-based, medication-assisted treatments to patients with opioid use disorder in primary care, psychiatric care, substance use disorder treatment, and pain management settings."
Taking the VITALS to Interrupt Microaggressions
"We developed a 60-minute workshop designed to raise awareness of microaggressions encountered by medical students and trainees. The workshop consisted of a didactic presentation and multiple interactive exercises shared in small- and large-group formats."