The recent Alabama Dock Brawl piqued my interest as a business strategist who examines corporate culture. For those who are unfamiliar, a video reveals an individual performing his duties and being questionably challenged by patrons at a dock. The situation escalated to an environment where spectators and community members engaged in battle on opposing sides.
As I viewed the video, my mind traveled to stories (including my own) of corporate environments where privilege and presumed power caused an avoidable ruckus. In particular, I saw three parallels between the Alabama Dock Brawl and toxic corporate culture.
Threatened While Doing Your Job
While the verbal exchange was unclear in the video, the body language suggested escalated dialogue between the parties. In the workplace, microaggressions come into play when employees experience hostile or negative communication consistently in everyday interactions. For example, as a woman, I’ve been told I’m “too emotional” for shedding tears about blatant racism in the workplace and being labeled an angry Black woman for addressing such injustices.
In a survey conducted by Survey Monkey and Forbes, 68% of Americans reported that microaggression represents a serious problem in the workplace. Unaddressed microaggressions engender employee isolation, decreased productivity and turnover. Many employees refrain from reporting microaggressions due to fear of retaliation by leaders.
Privilege Exerted, Even When People Are Watching
The patrons’ aggressive stance, as captured in the video, mirror leaders who negatively exert privilege and feel empowered to defy the rules and reinforce negative stereotypes. They are often emboldened to make decisions that benefit themselves at the expense of others, with no regard for who witnesses such infractions.
Gen Z Values and Skills Underestimated
According to E&Y, 49%or more of Gen Zers surveyed deemed issues such as racism, gun violence, climate change and economic equality as large problems to be addressed. They are willing to courageously stand and speak for their beliefs with passion and unity. In the video, a 16-year-old co-worker swam, fully clothed, to the dock to aid the embattled dock attendant. Witnessing the injustices empowered him to take action, even at the expense of putting himself in physical danger and potentially losing his job.
Designing the Firm of the Future
In my November 2020 Wealth Management article, Why Diversity and Inclusion Reaches a Screeching Halt, I expound on the notion that the workplace reflects the conscience of the leaders and the culture they create. Firms of the future foster hospitable workplaces anchored in physiological safety, where employees feel safe and respected. They recognize the risk of losing valuable talent and clients paying attention to a firm’s culture and values. Their policies and procedures denounce microaggressions and reward people encouraging a healthy, vibrant workplace. They analyze and engage generational work differences and preferences to attract and retain employees and consumers.
Financial services leaders, I encourage you to review the Alabama Dock Brawl as a relevant case study on avoiding toxic workplaces and designing the firm of the future.
Lazetta Rainey Braxton the founder/CEO of Lazetta & Associates and co-CEO at 2050 Wealth Partners.
Take a look at our comprehensive guide to the best and most popular information ebooks and products available today on Detoxing, Colon Cleansing, Weight Loss and Dating and Romance. They are all in one spot, easy to find and compere to make a quick selection for the product that best fits your needs or wants.
So browse through a category and make your preferred selection and come back here to read more choice articles and get a few more helpful tips on ways to help your enhancement.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. “saubiosaubiosuccess.com is a participant in third party affiliate and advertising programs; The Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Awin network, and other affiliate advertising programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees and commissions by advertising and linking to products on other sites and on Amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.”
We use anonymous cookies and various 3rd-party services to optimise and to offer you a better, more personalised, browsing experience with advanced accessibility enhancements.
Dismiss
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
