 | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| | |||||||||||
 Hi ya party people, Anybody else have a wildly busy week this week??? Soooo many upcoming events to prepare for, and the Safe Space Summit will be here before you know it! If you haven’t applied to attend yet, it’s not too late! 😉 Now, for Q&A this week: We've got someone who got pushed out of a job over what they believe to be false accusations, and a new manager who inherited a team that's basically a case study in what happens when bad culture goes unchecked for too long. So let’s talk about it! And if you wanna make my day? Submit questions if you have any, for a chance to be featured! 😊 Sponsored by Metaview You wanna know what makes some recruiting teams so painfully slow? 😒 ASK AWAY 😮 division & accusations ✍🏾 What happens when you are the minority in the office and pushed out of a job due to false accusations, in hopes of pushing you of your job, because trying to understand cultural awareness is frowned upon when you have too many questions. Context: I was pushed out of my job where I was one of 4 non African American people working in this office. I was accused of being racist; my questions about the variety of hairstyles and how to accomplish them were considered racist. Which led a specific woman to falsely accuse me of telling people how to dress or do their hair, which led to them telling my African American boss they didn’t like working with me. When in reality, none of that happened, I have nothing but respect, and my HR person just took it all as truth and terminated me. Right after I was promoted to site manager. I was a clinic lead at my WellNow site and I was terminated to keep the rest of the office comfortable. BUT I never did anything, she lied and made up stories and HR never took the time to actually speak to me. 📣 Christine McCallum-Randalls, Director of People @ Test Double To answer the specific question of what to do when you are terminated due to false accusations, you probably want to seek the advice of an attorney. They'll be best positioned to help you. The following is sensitive. I'm saying it because of how your situation can be interpreted, and because there are many situations in which what people say really is a problem without them realizing it. I'm not making any judgement about you. The following is a blanket statement. There are times that people (ahem....me) with good intentions speak out of curiosity in ways that harm others without realizing it. I'm white and have said things to people different from me that I thought were harmless until I saw the look on their faces. Then I got educated (without those folks educating me) on why what I said wasn't okay. What can feel like normal curiosity, "How do you get your hair to do that?" can be received like "othering," a subtle way of telling someone they aren't "normal" and therefore are less than. Although my intent was never to be racist, I was still behaving in a racist manner. When it comes to questions about the experiences of folks who are different from me especially if they are historically marginalized by society, I only ask questions like that only after building a lot of trust with someone. I have to get to know the person before asking questions about their identity or things related to it. If that trust hasn't been established, I have found Google to be the best way for me to find the answer. 📣 Melissa Stough, HR Business Partner @ Project Genesis: Echoing Christine, your good intention is not always going to be received. You meant every question as genuine curiosity and desire to know more about their culture and experience, but your questions did not land that way. That is not saying you are racist or in the wrong for asking questions, just a simple truth. You do not know the experiences your former colleagues have had as African-American people, and there are many people in the world who disguise racism with questions and backhanded compliments. Again, like Christine said, this is not a judgement about you or your actions. This is their experience. They live in a society where they never know who is genuine and who is not. Could this situation have been handled differently? Possibly. Should HR have spoken with you before making a final decision? Possibly. Is the timing odd? Possibly. But there are details that I don't have to be able to say anything more, and it's like you don't have them either. At the end of the day, you can decide to take this to an attorney and get more clarity on how your former company came to this decision, or you can decide not to. My only advice is that in the future, try to do the research online first. It goes a long way to showing people that you are genuinely curious. Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.  ✍🏾 How can a manager effectively address a workplace of approximately 15 employees when the office culture has become divided? The majority group, consisting primarily of clinical staff, has developed behaviors that can be perceived as bullying, degrading, or undermining toward other employees. As a result, the remaining staff members often become submissive, hesitant to voice concerns, and reluctant to speak up when inappropriate behavior occurs. This dynamic has begun to negatively impact employee morale, workplace communication, teamwork, and overall productivity. What strategies can leadership implement to foster a more respectful, inclusive, and professional work environment while addressing these behaviors and rebuilding trust among all employees? Context: It is a Healthcare Office with 15 staff. This culture has been going on and was enabled by the previous manager. I am here less than a year and dread coming to work every day 📣 Sondra Norris, Founder @ Strategic Culture Partners: It's not clear if you are the manager, or if you're going to try to influence the current manager to attempt to change what's going on. Is there a new manager in place? If so, for how long? Do they have clear authority in the office? What customer satisfaction metrics do you have, if any? What other performance metrics are in place, if any? It is most likely that any of these people as an individual does NOT wake up every day literally plotting how they can make life terrible for other human beings. To assume that is true is a fundamental attribution error. What has happened is nothing surprising in the construct of the organization where real power exists, and in a tough job market (so people need to stay), and most simply, where there is more than one human being. It's all baked into Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner), Group Socialization (Levine and Moreland), and Social Conformity / Normative Influence (Asch): one group is elevating itself over the other with its behavior - all the people are deriving their own self-esteem and status needs via comparison between groups. Group membership, instead of "we all work at this health center together to help people," has become the survival-relevant line. So you have to move that line. The fix is counterintuitive. The undermining and bullying aren't the problem to solve, they're the symptom of the problem. If you do conflict mediation, performance management, team building - you're not solving the problem - the group comparison reality will just find another outlet. ONE: Common Ingroup Identity (Gaertner and Dovidio; Sherif's Robbers Cave) Start with a shared superordinate goal that can't be achieved solely by one group, something from each group is required to succeed. This provides a new leveled-up identity. [This can come from the questions above regarding customer satisfaction or performance metrics - something that everyone must contribute to solving.] Structure the work so each side's contribution is visible and necessary to the other, and back it with consistent leadership behavior so it reads as real rather than as a team-building stunt, which they'll see through in .00000324 seconds. This takes consistent effort and management - it allows the group members to start seeing each other as humans for real, not "talking about it." TWO Understand the conditions that are creating the factions: The factional behavior is coming from conditions, usually resource scarcity, status ambiguity, or a real or perceived threat one group attributes to the other. Of course, if there is real harm coming from bullying behavior, that has to be intervened. 📣 Alex White, Regional Director, HR @ Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club: I think Sondra's Response raises an important point about group dynamics and informal power structures, especially in a small office where the “majority group” may have become the unofficial culture-setter. If the previous manager allowed or enabled the behavior, the team may simply be operating under the old rules of engagement. That said, I would be careful not to over-theorize the situation to the point where the actual behavior gets minimized. Bullying, degrading comments, undermining, exclusion, intimidation, or retaliation still need to be addressed directly. Understanding the root cause is important, but it does not remove the need for accountability. In this situation, I think leadership has to work on two tracks at the same time. First, the manager needs to reset expectations clearly and consistently. That means defining what respectful and professional behavior looks like, as well as what will not be tolerated. This should include specific examples such as gossip, dismissive comments, public criticism, interrupting others, refusing to collaborate, or making employees feel unsafe speaking up. Second, leadership needs to rebuild the team around a shared purpose. In a healthcare setting, that purpose should be patient care, safety, communication, and trust. Clinical and non-clinical employees cannot operate as separate or competing groups. Each role contributes to the patient experience, and the office will not function well if one group is elevated at the expense of another. I also agree that the manager should look at what conditions may be feeding the divide. Is there role confusion? Unequal status? Staffing pressure? Poor communication? A lack of consistent standards? Those issues need to be identified and corrected so the same behavior does not simply show up in a different form later. At the same time, individual behavior still needs to be addressed individually. A group reset is helpful, but if certain employees are driving the toxic behavior, they need direct coaching, documented expectations, and consequences if the conduct continues. Most importantly, trust will only rebuild through consistency. One meeting, one training, or one team-building exercise will not fix a culture that has been allowed to develop over time. The manager has to intervene in the moment, follow up on concerns, protect employees who speak up, and demonstrate that the new expectations are real. The comment about dreading coming to work every day is a serious warning sign. If the person posting is the manager, they may need support from HR, senior leadership, or an outside facilitator. If they are not the manager, they should begin documenting specific concerns and escalate them appropriately. Culture is often defined by the behavior leadership allows. If the previous culture was enabled, the new culture has to be intentionally rebuilt through clarity, consistency, shared purpose, and accountability. 📣 Rosetta Williams, Sr. Director, People Talent & Culture @ Immigrant Justice Corps: I wrote a whole lot and then erased it because I duplicated exactly what @Alex White stated. Just added my extra two cents here. The situation you're describing is a classic inherited culture problem — the previous manager didn't just permit these behaviors, they normalized them. That's what makes your job harder: the clinical staff majority has no reason to believe the rules have changed yet. Your job is to make that unmistakably clear. You're in a good position to be a resource here — just make sure the manager understands that they have to own the execution. HR can coach, document, and support, but the daily behavioral reset has to come from them. Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here. Sponsored by Salary.com You wanna know the truth about why compensation convos usually fall apart? 🤔 🚨 ON YOUR RADAR 🎧 Is geography limiting your hiring capabilities? I sat down with Sagar Khatri, CEO of Multiplier, to talk about what building a global team looks like, and why the best hire you've never made might live in a diff country. Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 🛋️ SURPRISE! It's somehow already mid-year, and it’s time to reflect on goals you barely remember setting. Join us June 24th for HR Therapy, where we're laser-focusing on the three biggest challenges in 2026 so far, backed by data from Checkr's CHRO Insights Report. 💰Pay Transparency matters (but it's also difficult). That's why I created this course. Join the Safe Space community to access it, plus everything else you need to stay ahead of the curve. 🌯 Somewhere, a hiring manager just told a recruiter to "keep the candidate warm," and that sounds more like a burrito to me! Real people are out here waiting on offers while you're in your fourth debrief meeting. eSkill put together the full breakdown on how to move faster and still hire the right person.* *This one is brought to you by one of my amazing brand partners 📝 RESOURCE OF THE WEEK Each week I feature a resource I love from the Safe Space library that I believe would be relatable to this week's newsletter topic. This week, let’s revisit the first edition of AI in HR, and join us for part 2 happening TODAY! Check it out HERE ⬇️  {/if}{if contains(profile.lists,"Safe Space Members")} 🫂 COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS 👯New Member Meetup is happening next week - New to Safe Space?Join Kat for a 30-minute virtual meetup to help new members get in the groove, meet each other, and get comfortable on the platform. It’s onboarding with real humans, not a cold start in the void. Sign up here! In-person Meet-ups 🏔️Denver front range area - It’s official, we’re meeting up IRL on July 16th!! Half day of co-working followed by carbs from one of the best bakeries in Denver at Denver Central Market. Can’t come for the co-working sesh? No probs - meet up with us between 4-6pm at DCM for carbs, vibes and to hang with your ppl. Grab your spot here! Philly, Raleigh/Triangle area, St.Louis - IRL’s are coming to your area soon, stay tuned! Want to host your own in-person event, shoot Kat a DM here! {/if}{if contains(profile.lists,"Safe Space Members")}{/if} FRIDAY FUN 🏀 OMG FINALLY BUDGET!! THIS IS HOW IT FEELS TO FINALLY GET BUDGET AND RESOURCES!!!!!!!! That's all for this week! I hope you enjoyed! If you have any thoughts, please let me know. I'm allll ears. Reminder: Today is FRIDAY. 🙏 | |||||||||||
|
{beacon}
Workweek Newsletter
