Your Identity is a Risk Factor: Workplace Stress and Your Health
Issue No. 5: Stressed Out!
Words - Sarah Cuddie and Betty Fermin
Illustration - Sharon Spitz
Melancholy by Sharon Spitz
The workplace can be stressful for everyone, but there are additional stressors that negatively impact women and non-binary people in the workplace, especially if they also hold other marginalized identities. The term for this is emotional tax, which Catalyst defines as “the heightened experience of being different from peers at work because of your gender and/or race/ethnicity and the associated detrimental effects on health, wellbeing, and the ability to thrive at work.” This stress can be caused by a wide range of challenges, including harassment, pay inequality, lack of opportunities for advancement, lack of accessibility, gender discrimination, and racist behavior. The combination of these and other stressors can have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of women and non-binary people in ways that are still not fully understood or acknowledged.
Workplace harassment can be a significant cause of stress for women in the workplace. Women hold the majority of low-wage sales and service industry jobs in the United States, such as waitresses, hotel housekeepers, store clerks, and nail technicians. These industries also represented the vast majority of workplace harassment claims filed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), as reported by Buzzfeed. Harassment is often normalized in these fields as something that you have to put up with in order to earn tips or ensure that you are scheduled for enough shifts in a week. This harassment is also worse for some groups of women than others. For example, a study published in Gender, Work, and Organization found that, while sexual harassment in the workplace has declined overall, Black women are 3.8 times more likely than their white peers to report being sexually harassed at work.
Threats and harassment happening on a larger, cultural scale can also impact the wellbeing of employees in their workplace. The increase in immigration raids and threats of deportation targeted at all Latinx people, regardless of citizenship, under the current U.S. administration is impacting the levels of stress and health of Latinx workers. While research is still in process to determine the true effects of anti-Latinx rhetoric on health, the Center for Disease Control and the American Medical Association have already identified an increase in premature births, high blood pressure, and psychological distress following the 2016 presidential election. Because workplaces have been sites for immigration raids, Latinx employees are often experiencing this stress while at work.
In addition to overtly hostile behavior, less visible discrimination can also lead to stress. For example, the gender pay gap is a problem for women of all races, but women of color are disproportionately underpaid. A study by the National Women’s Law Center found that Native American women in full-time positions will make about $24,443 less than their white male counterparts in similar positions. This disparity doesn’t just impact women financially; a study published in Social Science and Medicine found that women who were paid significantly less than their male co-workers were at a higher risk for developing mood disorders, like depression and anxiety. This is especially evident among Asian women, who face limited advancement in high-paying fields such as law and tech. Even as the number of Asian women working in Silicon Valley is growing faster than any gender and race group, except for Asian men, a report from Ascend found that this representation isn’t leading to equality. Asian women are the least represented in executive roles of any race or gender group. This perceived failure to be seen as a top performer, combined with cultural stigmas against mental health treatment, can result in a mental health crisis or suicide. A 2017 CDC report shows that suicide is one of the top five leading causes of death for Asian-American women from the ages of 10 to 54, starting in childhood and remaining prevalent throughout the majority of their working years.
The chronic stress caused by discrimination, which contributes to increased rates of mental illness, has a particularly negative impact on transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people, who experience gender discrimination in a way that is particularly stressful. For example, many workplaces don’t offer gender neutral bathrooms in their offices, forcing people to choose between binary options and risk potential harassment or violence. Professional or business clothing is still highly gendered in terms of expectations, which can force people who aren’t out at work to dress in ways that exacerbate their gender dysphoria. People who choose to not come out at work for fear of harassment, job loss, or other reasons, deal with the daily stress of being misgendered or deadnamed by their colleagues and clients. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal courts have stated that refusing to hire someone, or firing them because they are transgender is illegal. However, many trans people still report experiencing this type of discrimination, and the fear associated with that can be a major stressor. While it’s important to understand your rights in the workplace, it’s stressful to know that those rights may be called into question by your employer or colleagues.
The many ways people can be disregarded and persecuted are complex and just adds to what can be an already stressful situation, particularly when your legal rights are ignored or questioned. Disabled people face additional stress in the workplace, often even before they get there. Job descriptions are often riddled with exclusionary criteria, such as requiring candidates to have the ability to type, being able to lift objects weighing 25lbs, or being able to access buildings that are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to a 2017 report by the Center for Talent Innovation, a full 30% of the full-time, college educated workforce are disabled as defined by the U.S. Federal government. 62% of these people have an invisible disability, and choose not to disclose their disability to their managers, co-workers, or clients. This can make attending more frequent medical appointments, taking sick days, or asking for workplace accommodations stressful or impossible.
Discrimination in the workplace has significant negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of marginalized people, and the full effects of this stress are not yet known. In addition, the responsibility for identifying, addressing, and fixing these problems is often placed on the very people who are being harmed. It is critical that people who have privilege and are in positions of power, particularly white people, educate themselves and take meaningful action in their workplaces to make them more inclusive and less stressful for their colleagues. This begins with building self-awareness of the ways in which you may be directly and indirectly harming people in your workplace, and requires continuous learning and consistent work. If reading this piece highlighted some stressors that you have never thought about or experienced, that’s a great place to start reflecting on your own privilege, educating yourself on discrimination in your workplace, and taking action to make things more equitable.
