Microaggressions

Scenario 2

- Maria has just come back from maternity leave. Mark invites her to a meeting at 5pm to go over what she’s missed. Mark is a new manager and hasn’t met Maria before.

- When she comes in, Mark hesitates – Maria isn’t at all what he expected. He immediately says, “I’m so sorry, my mental image of you was very different. But let’s start again, tell me a bit about yourself…’

- After a bit of small talk, he asks, ‘Is there anything I need to know to help you get back up to speed? Normally we would have had ”keeping in touch days” but unfortunately because I’m new, we haven’t had the chance to have any yet”

- They spend most of the time talking about how Mark can support Maria – they discuss a more flexible work schedule, and he suggests that she can work from home more often if she needs to. He also says he’ll speak to HR about childcare vouchers – in his previous company they had a scheme that made childcare significantly cheaper.

- At the end of the meeting, Maria is feeling much more relaxed about work – she still needs to see Mark follow through on his words, but it’s a positive start.