ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE: RESENTMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MANAGERS

After talking to African Americans managers, I found out that one of the main problems they often encounter is having White and other non-African American subordinates who intensely dislike taking orders and instructions from a Black person. These managers know that The Black Factor is the issue because these employees can be observed giving full or more complete cooperation to White managers on the job. If a White manager gives them an assignment, they smile, ask any questions, and do the work. The converse is often true when these types of people get an assignment from an African American. For instance, they may complain about the work, insist the work is beneath them or inappropriate for them, may try to pawn the work off on someone else, may go to other white managers in attempts to get out of the work, may intentionally slack off on the quality of the work, may miss deadlines due to lack of respect, etc.

Managing people can be a headache for anyone. Most people simply do not like their supervisors because many people just don’t like being told what to do and do not like being monitored. However, when you throw in race as a factor that is important for subordinates, you can see how an already stressful job, supervising, can become unnecessarily burdensome. Point blank, many non-Black (and even some Black workers) resent reporting to (read: having to submit to the authority and management of) a Black person. The Black manager may be educated, intelligent, honest, likeable, etc., but the non-Black subordinate may still feel they have gotten “the shaft” by being a part of this person’s reporting structure. As a result of the Black Factor, some of the issues African American managers have to deal with are:

-- White and non-African American subordinates will receive directions and then will still go ahead and do what they want;

-- White and non-African American subordinates will pretend they didn’t understand directions, even when it comes to performing work that is a routine part of their job;

-- White and non-African American subordinates will give attitude to African American managers;

-- White and non-African American subordinates will question every request. (e.g., why can’t so and so do it?);

-- White and non-African American subordinates will ask them how to perform a task, will get an answer, and will then go to a White manager and ask the same question. They will then follow the White manager’s instructions instead of their own manager’s instructions; and

-- White and non-African American subordinates will regularly go over their African American supervisor’s head to complain about mistreatment and dealing with a “bad attitude,” particularly if their supervisor is an African American woman.

What’s interesting about the race dynamic at work is that race-based stereotyping and name-calling is not confined to just Black low and junior-level workers, but is also used against Black mid-level managers and to executives. Therefore, a Black manager or executive is just as likely, as a Black secretary, to be called “angry,” “defensive,” “rude,” “mean,” “snooty,” “brash,” “disrespectful,” and/or “hateful.” In fact, depending on the race-tolerance of their subordinates, a Black manager may be more likely to be the target of racially-based profiling in the workplace. The workers may feel the need to lash out, possibly with the hopes of being reassigned another (read: White) manager or to make a situation so untenable that they will be transferred to another unit.

Have you had any issues, as a Black manager? Have you witnessed any Black managers having race-related issues with their staff? Tell us about it. Post a comment of send an email to blackonthejob@yahoo.com.