Allyship in the Workplace

Every employee has the right to feel safe, supported, and appreciated on the job, regardless of their gender identity, appearance or beliefs. An ally in the workplace, actively supports and enhances the culture of inclusiveness by purposeful, constructive, and conscientious activities that benefit their colleagues.

In the workplace, underrepresented groups are often subconsciously or consciously discriminated against by majority groups or those with power over them. This discrimination can be in the form of, but not limited to:

• Prejudiced comments and actions
• Demonstration of favoritism during promotions and company restructuring
• Unequal pay between people with the same job, experience and qualifications.
• Denial of training opportunities

In December 2016, Starbucks lost a disability discrimination case after it wrongly accused a dyslexic employee of falsifying documents when she had simply misread the numbers, she was responsible for recording. An employment tribunal found that Starbucks had victimised Meseret Kumulchew after she inaccurately recorded the water and fridge temperatures as part of her duties as a supervisor. Though Kumulchew had made her managers aware of her dyslexia at the time of her employment, no reasonable adjustments for her reading difficulties were made.

If her manager was an ally, he would have advocated for reasonable adjustments to be made in order to accommodate Kumulchew and allow her to perform her work efficiently.An ally recognizes their privilege and uses it to help and include employees who are at a disadvantage and create an inclusive culture.

Employees from dominant groups ought to work to understand the experiences of those from disadvantaged groups by forming connections with them and cultivating empathy for their plight. An ally will utilise their position of power to amplify the concerns of traditionally silenced or underrepresented workers and to bring their struggles to the forefront of a broader conversation.

The case of Meseret is an example of many ways in which one can be an ally in the workplace. Are you an ally in your organisation? How are you promoting inclusion?

1 Dyslexia - a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling

References

He, G., 2022. Allyship in the Workplace: Ultimate Guide. [Online]

Available at: https://teambuilding.com/blog/allyship-in-the-workplace#:~:text=Examples%20include%20sponsor%20allies%2C%20mentor,create%20an%20inclusive%20workplace%20culture.

Weaver, M., 2016. Dyslexic employee wins discrimination case against Starbucks. [Online]

Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/09/dyslexic-employee-wins-discrimination-case-starbucks#:~:text=Starbucks%20has%20lost%20a%20disability,she%20was%20responsible%20for%20recording.