Throughout my experience in the corporate jungle, as well as through many of my conversations with other corporate sisters, one of the most recurring comment I’ve come across, including straight from my own mouth, is: “I don’t want to be perceived as lazy!”
The stereotype around Black people being characterized as lazy is a real one, and has existed for as long as we can all remember. It exists in the workplace as much, if not more, than everywhere else. And for many of us, it’s a silent Damocles sword weighing over our corporate heads day in and day out. In an environment where perception still matters very much, many a corporate sister ends up suffering from the backlash of stereotypical and unjust perceptions, against which we have to fight back with what limited means we have at our disposal…
Some of us fight back with our innate sense of duty and responsibility, overworking our already depleted selves, dipping into our endless guilt reserves to find even more reasons why, no matter how much work we produce, we’ll never measure up…
While others end up getting stuck in this awkward place between repressed anger and destructive guilt, never quite sure which stance to take…
While yet again others stop buying into the mere theory that we can make it at all and flat out give up…
In any case, the effectiveness of the response rarely matches the breadth of the problem.
One thing I have come to understand is that stereotypes are just as hard to erase as a marker stain on a white shirt. They just exist, in all their incoherence and absurdity. And it’s neither our responsibility to feed them nor is it to circumvent them:
Do your best, without the pressure of over-extending oneself when unecessary is one way to not allow stereotypes to rule over us.
Set clear expectations and define fair boundaries from the start is also par for the course. It’s all about being honest with ourselves and others, honest about our expectations and that of others, as well as our limitations.
Always, always, always remain professional, even in the most challenging of situations. Your professionalism is your brand in the workplace, you have to maintain and nurture it in spite of all odds…
Are you giving in to the “lazy” corporate sister’s stereotype and working too much?
The Corporate Sister.
