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The Broad Experience · The Broad Experience

Episode 194: How to Confront Bias

June 13, 2022·23 min·2 clips
Ashley describes how her colleague Anitha gets eye rolls for saying the same thing she does, revealing subtle bias.
A workplace meeting becomes the test case. Ashley Milne-Tight frames bias as something people do not experience equally, then asks Raina and Anitha what response can look like. Some moments were easy to see. Anitha and Raina could make similar points, yet the room thanked one person and bristled at the other. This was not faint discomfort. The excerpt names race, gender, and LGBTQ experience as subjects that can make fairness feel touchy at work. Anitha puts the mismatch plainly. Her social status, her expertise, and the simple act of speaking all run into power that is not evenly shared. Raina answers more directly. Behind the scenes, she sometimes says what she thinks is happening, including naming racism instead of accepting softer explanations. She still adds a caveat. That bluntness may fit her Australian background, but she does not sell it as the right move for everyone. Ashley presses the practical question. If saying the thing outright is not always wise, confronting bias takes judgment, not just nerve. Anitha offers a few ways in. She speaks in the moment when she can and when the risk will not threaten her whole career. Other methods are quieter. She may ask Raina after a meeting to watch for the same pattern next time, turning private recognition into shared observation. Data matters too. Counting repeated moments gives them a way to bring evidence to senior colleagues instead of relying only on a gut feeling. Ashley closes by asking listeners how they have confronted bias at work, how awkward it felt, and what happened next.

As heard by us

A grounded, practical conversation about confronting workplace bias without leaving all the risk with the person experiencing it.

The Broad Experience makes workplace bias feel less abstract by focusing on what happens in the room: who gets thanked, who gets eye rolls, and how race, gender, status, and power can change the cost of saying the same thing.

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Why you'd press play

A grounded look at bias at work, and the different ways people push back.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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