A new study from scholars at Indiana University has uncovered racial disparities among Black and White employees’ responses to experiencing mistreatment in the workplace. According to the study’s findings, Black Americans are significantly more likely than their White peers to become depressed and lose sleep following negative workplace encounters.
The Indiana University study consisted of two parts. The first phase involved a two-part survey of a large sample of participants regarding their workplace treatment. One group of participants completed a second survey regarding clinical depression symptoms and another tracked their nightly sleep quality and wore a sleep-monitoring device. Upon analyzing the results, the authors found a connection between mistreatment and depressive symptoms, but only among Black participants. The authors estimated that Black employees who were mistreated at work lose 100 minutes of sleep per night compared to White people who were or were not mistreated, as well as Black people who were not mistreated.
In the study’s second phase, the authors asked a sample of 500 participants to recall a time when they were mistreated at work. Black participants were significantly more likely than White employees to believe they were mistreated because of their race. In comparison, White participants were significantly more likely to report their negative experiences as easily “shaken off,” rather than a slight on their personal identity.
The authors stress their findings point towards an urgent need to improve workplace inclusivity among Black employees. They urge organizations to center their organizational culture around eliminating mistreatment attributed to unchangeable aspects of each employee’s identity, such as their race. To accomplish this goal, they suggest companies begin to implement accountability measures for workplace mistreatment and encourage bystander intervention among their staff.
