Minimising it all away

Minimisation, in psychological terms, is something many of us do daily, attempting to make ourselves feel better after something bad has happened by making the negative impact of it feel smaller.

Yes, you spilt your coffee over your lap, but at least it didn’t spill onto your new shirt.

Yes, you got called into a work meeting about a mistake you made, but at least you didn’t get fired.

Yes, you have to work late this week, but at least it’ll be kept in mind for the next promotion.

You get the gist.

The most common way we minimise these negative impacts is most often with an “it could always be worse” approach. We often adopt this approach in the way we comfort or calm down the people around us, particularly our colleagues. We remind them there could’ve been a worse outcome, in an attempt to prove what happened “wasn’t that bad”.

We don’t always do this for selfless reasons- we do it to protect ourselves as well, even if we don’t realise it. If it can happen to them, it can happen to us. So, we minimise the stress away in order to get on with our day and be able to work without fearing doom.

So when does minimisation cause harm?

Sometimes, our colleagues are not venting about something that is merely unfortunate, they are venting about something that is discriminatory. Yet, our minds still instinctively try to minimise it:

Yes, your white colleagues spoke over you in a client meeting, but at least you’re in the room.

Yes, everyone gets treated the same here, we don’t see colour/gender/sexuality (or any other diversity characteristic).

Yes, all the senior leaders are male, but we have a lot of diversity in other parts of the organisation.

We instinctively do this because we don’t want to believe our workplace is unfair or discriminatory because what does that mean about the role we play? If we don’t see difference and treat everyone the same then surely we can’t be acting with any bias.

But all this leads to is things being minimised away until they’re swept under the rug, breeding an environment where employees don’t report discrimination because “it could be worse”, or indeed that they are treated the same as everyone else with no recognition of their difference. As we know equal does not mean fair.

What should I do about this?

Minimisation is an important instinct that can help soothe a tough day at work and get us through difficult moments, but it isn’t always the appropriate response. Learning when it’s inappropriate is the important distinction to make. This allows us to tackle bias with the seriousness it deserves, allowing for an environment where employees feel safe to report discrimination.

It is important that we all raise our self-awareness of how we minimise and the impact this has on those from a minority group. Secondly, you also need to be able to recognise it when you hear others minimise and be able to constructively challenge it. 

At Avenir, we have a number of workshops that can support this growth and development: Privilege, Bias or Merit?, Subtle Acts of Exclusion and Banter & Inclusive Language workshops. These help to dissect instinctive processes like minimisation, and help you become consciously inclusive in your decision-making.