Identifying And Playing Out Workplace Stereotypes

Before we start this podcast, let's begin with an imagination. Imagine a story: say your manager informed you that they'd need your assistance training a new hire from Thailand in two weeks. What sprang to mind when you learned the new hire's native location? Did you form any opinions about the person based only on their country of origin? The answer is definitely yes, which is very common, this is how our brain works. To process all the information we encounter daily, our brain creates shortcuts known as stereotypes. And workplace stereotyping is something that needs to be figured out, no matter what.

Susmita Sarma: Hello listeners, welcome back to the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast. I'm Susmita, your host, and to discuss workplace stereotypes, please join me in welcoming Nandita Krishan, General Manager at MarchingSheep. She's also a podcaster, author, speaker, and diversity and inclusion expert. Hi Nandita, welcome to the show.

Nandita Krishan: Hi Susmita, thank you so much for having me here.

Susmita Sarma: Thank you so much for being here today. Would you like to tell us about yourself, your professional background, and your current role?

Nandita Krishan: Absolutely, and let me start by saying it's a pleasure to be on the show and share my experience with your listeners. I'm an HR professional with over a decade of experience across various HR roles and functions, I've worn the hats of facilitator, recruiter, generalist, employee engagement specialist, and DEI expert. I'm also an NLP practitioner, neuro-linguistic programming, which rests on the premise that what we think, what we say, and how we act are all interconnected, so if we can control our thoughts, we can be the change we want to see. In my current role at MarchingSheep, I manage a diverse portfolio that lets me bring forth my innovative and passionate side as an HR professional. MarchingSheep is one of the top HR consulting firms not just in India but globally, we work across 80 countries and act as trusted advisors, rather than external consultants, for organizations in the diversity and inclusion domain and leadership development. My role specifically includes client engagement, facilitation, research, and OD consulting. We're a lean, diverse team, and we curate contextualized content and solutions rather than offering packaged products and trainings.

I started with MarchingSheep during COVID, I call myself the proud "COVID baby" of the organization, and today I independently conduct awareness and sensitization sessions on DEI and its various dimensions, along with leadership development programs and consulting. It's been a tremendous journey, and there's honestly no limit to learning and growth here, which is what keeps me going.

Susmita Sarma: Thank you for that introduction, Nandita. Today we'll be talking about workplace stereotypes, and I sincerely thank you for agreeing to discuss this serious, critical topic that isn't much discussed online. Any assumption from a stereotype left unchecked can slow down or stop a company's growth, right? Let's begin with the meaning, what exactly is workplace stereotyping, and where does it come from?

Nandita Krishan: Sure, to simplify it, stereotypes are assumptions we make for or against a certain type of person or group. When these assumptions start affecting our workplace decisions and ways of working, they become workplace stereotypes. These assumptions can take any form, culture, race, background, gender, disability, sexual orientation, just about anything. I was once conducting a session for a big global company, for their Latin America region, and during a reflection activity, a participant told me he believes people who've struggled in life are more deserving of a job, which is why he ends up hiring people specifically from that background. So there's no fixed number of workplace stereotypes, but are we born with these assumptions? No, we're not. These stereotypes stem from cues we pick up as we grow. When we see someone cooking in the kitchen and serving our favorite meal at home, we automatically assume that's their primary role, traditionally, we don't associate men with cooking. Draw a parallel to the workplace: birthday celebrations and cake-cutting are often considered "a woman colleague's responsibility." That's how workplace stereotypes manifest.

Susmita Sarma: So to process everything we encounter daily, our brain creates shortcuts, and those become stereotypes.

Nandita Krishan: Absolutely. We all talk about "working women" and "working mothers," but how often do we say "working man" or "working father"? And ironically, as workplaces evolve, our stereotypes evolve too, because we're constantly picking up new cues and forming new assumptions, this creates a vicious circle leading to exclusion and unhappy employees. Stereotypes will always exist, at every age, wherever we are, they're a reality of life based on our assumptions.

Susmita Sarma: And where does it come from, I'd guess home?

Nandita Krishan: Not just home, I'd broaden that to social conditioning. Home, school, college, movies, for a very long time, heroines and female actors weren't given their due credit; all they had to do was dance around trees and sing songs. It's only recently, with actresses like Kareena Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, and Katrina Kaif, that we're seeing women lead Indian films too. It's all social conditioning.

Susmita Sarma: So when it comes to the workplace, what forms and repercussions do you see?

Nandita Krishan: What we pick up as social conditioning becomes workplace bias, assuming a disabled person needs special handling, or common gender stereotypes like assuming women can't succeed in sales because it requires more travel, or travel to areas considered unsafe for them. These are common stereotypes we see, or talk about, today. What we don't fully understand is how deep an impact workplace stereotypes have on organizations, it's not just about employees from different life stages and diverse groups feeling left out; those employees are working for your organization, so it has a downstream effect on business revenue, productivity, and attrition, with a bigger impact on overall employer brand. I think companies today understand this, which is why most organizations are working to sensitize employees, managers, and leaders, and create an inclusive environment where every employee feels valued and taken care of. A lot of employees today want to work with purpose-driven organizations that resonate with their personal intentions and social impact, and that's what organizations need to be more aware of.

Susmita Sarma: Traditional gender prejudice exists in almost every organization, especially in India, where there's a tendency toward traditional gender roles, expecting a working woman to still manage the household while men are expected to work outside the home to provide. As culture, country, and society evolve, how are both men and women in the workplace becoming change agents?

Nandita Krishan: I want to give this a bit of a twist, in my experience, gender stereotypes and prejudice are no longer limited to women. Men face equal prejudice and bias at the workplace. A clear example: while many companies have introduced paternity leave for male employees over the past few years, uptake is harder to build, because of social conditioning where men fear being judged or laughed at by peers and colleagues for taking it, just as women returning from maternity leave are judged as no longer prioritizing their career, men are judged for taking paternity leave. Another example: while it's considered normal for women to take a career break at different life stages, it's still a big stigma for men to take a sabbatical. And in many organizations, women themselves act as barriers to other women's growth, this happens more than people realize. I call it the "if I did it the hard way" syndrome, and it's part of why women in mid-management often quit. So it's not just men who need to be change agents, women need to play their part too. Organizations can introduce progressive policies, but employees need to be open and accepting of them. One important thing I always emphasize: our employees are part of society, they come from it, and after work, they return to it. So if we're talking about social conditioning and stereotypes, addressing them has to start with sensitizing and improving our workplaces, and credit to organizations already walking the talk on this, though there's still a long way to go.

Susmita Sarma: Empathy has a role to play here too, it can reduce stereotypical attitudes by encouraging a shared sense of identity, and accountability helps clarify what's expected of each of us. What are your views on balancing accountability and empathy when dealing with sensitive workplace issues?

Nandita Krishan: I fully agree and support that empathy plays a huge role in creating a safe, productive space for employees to work and grow. During COVID, a lot of evolving employee needs came up, and empathy was the biggest, employees wanted managers, leaders, and employers to understand the mental trauma everyone was going through during lockdown and respond more humanely. But it's also important to understand that empathy isn't entitlement. It's okay to expect your manager or employer to be empathetic toward your needs and evolving life stages, but empathy isn't a reserved seat that gives someone the right to simply not perform while saying "I'm going through mental trauma." Many companies introduced mental health leave, but being sensitive to workplace issues or building an inclusive workplace shouldn't come at the cost of accountability, every employee still needs to demonstrate the value they bring to the organization. It's the meritocracy conversation, which is why balancing these two matters so much. You shouldn't only hold employees accountable and dismiss context entirely, but acknowledging constraints doesn't take away the fact that there might have been another way to create value. Both need to coexist.

Susmita Sarma: Age diversity can also increase organizational performance and reduce turnover, yet very few firms include it in their DEI plans. Hasn't the time come to see aging as a positive period of opportunity, and older workers as valuable contributors to society?

Nandita Krishan: Absolutely. Many organizations today have moved beyond ancestral businesses and survive largely on the goodwill and expertise of the older generation. A lot of our senior management are what we call baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964, the oldest generation currently in the workforce. They bring experienced knowledge, market know-how, and real-life experience, they've seen the ups and downs of the Great Resignation, COVID, wars, every economic downturn, and yet we still refer to older people as "out of touch" or "digitally handicapped," especially with technology, or use terms like "slow" and "too rigid to work with." That's nothing but ageism. And when we talk about "baby boomers" as one group, look at the gap, 1946 to 1964 is nearly two decades. How is it fair to bucket and judge everyone across an 18-to-20-year span as the same? Someone born in 1946 isn't the same as someone born in 1964, yet we use these broad labels to assume how they'll behave or work. We can't label them all the same, we need to credit every year of experience within that generation, and honestly, most of them are eager to learn too; organizations often just fail to actually teach them. It's high time organizations, employers, and managers take responsibility for bringing them up to speed.

Ageism has two extremes, though, one for older people, as we discussed, and another for younger people, Gen Z, or "Zillennials," who joined the workforce during the work-from-home phase. Once offices reopened, we ended up with a whole new dimension of diversity, the multi-generational workforce. Younger people face age discrimination too, being labeled less experienced, irresponsible, or untrustworthy, not because they actually are, but because of the generation they're stereotyped as belonging to. What we need to understand is that every individual, regardless of generational label, is a unique individual, instead of treating them as a treasure trove of knowledge, skills, and experience to leverage, we simply label them by generation. Organizations need to be mindful of this. Many have introduced reverse mentoring, where younger employees mentor older ones on technological adjustment, alongside traditional mentoring, where older employees mentor younger ones entering the workforce. It's always a give-and-take if you want to genuinely address these stereotypes.

Susmita Sarma: What final tips would you offer employers and managers listening in, on how to decrease stereotyping in the workplace, not just around age, but diversity broadly?

Nandita Krishan: First and foremost, I don't think you can eradicate stereotyping entirely, you can only be aware of it and address it through ongoing awareness. It's a vicious circle, as I said, we're constantly picking up cues, so we'll constantly keep stereotyping to some degree. As long as we stay self-aware, we can increase awareness among employees about their own biases. Every employee should be encouraged to pause, reflect, and question their preconceived notions, especially for important decisions like building a project team, recruitment, performance, pay, and promotions. We're all biased and victims of social conditioning, but a better understanding of our own thought processes and conditioning positions us to challenge our assumptions. Second, encourage open communication among employees across geographies, functions, levels, and departments, the more people interact, the better the chances of moving past bias and stereotypes, because communication satisfies curiosity, and once a curious mind gets its answer, it stops assuming. And most importantly, building an inclusive, bias-free workplace is a continuous process, just like Rome wasn't built in a day, inclusion doesn't happen overnight, and we need to constantly and regularly remind employees to stay conscious of this practice, through regular sensitization sessions, expert talks, and exposure to diverse perspectives.

Susmita Sarma: I really loved this conversation today, Nandita, and I'm sure our audience will enjoy it too. How can they reach out to you?

Nandita Krishan: I'm a little allergic to social media, I find it a bit fake, so you won't find me on Facebook or Twitter, sorry about that! But I'm reachable on LinkedIn as Nandita Krishan, and you can find me on the MarchingSheep website, www.marchingsheep.com.

Susmita Sarma: We'll share the LinkedIn link in the show notes for this episode. I really appreciate your time today, and thank you for sharing your expertise, we can't wait to have you back.

Nandita Krishan: This has been an absolutely amazing conversation, Susmita. I'll end with one last line, in my experience, and I learn and grow every day through interactions with people across geographies, if there's one thing that's stuck with me, it's that the only constant in life is change, and the grass is always greener where you water it. It's not greener on the other side, that's a myth, an excuse. As individuals, we need to water our own thoughts and behaviors, and those of our children, to keep growing, and we need to constantly evolve to keep up with change and adapt to new, unique ways of life and business. That's how we address our own assumptions.

Susmita Sarma: Brilliant, absolutely true. Nandita, thanks for joining us once again.

Nandita Krishan: Thank you, Susmita, thank you so much for having me.

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