The Bait-and-Switch, Discrimination, and the Undercover Workplace

*Disclaimer- I use very direct and strong language in this article (not profane) because I want to communicate the depth and seriousness of the patterns I describe. I don't think it serves anyone to sugar-coat this, so if you're sensitive to that, skip this article and come back in 2 weeks).

Are employees consistently utilized according to the expertise they were hired for, or are they systematically redirected into work that primarily supports and protects discriminatory power structures?

A question I've asked myself many times, in one way or another, especially after starting my journey of studying organizational behavior and analyzing my own experiences.

I wish I could say 'most', but ALL of the corporate roles I've had have followed a very similar pattern:

• Interview: "You have a great skill set, and we think you'd be great for this role!"

• Start: Love bombing, more love bombing- but little motion. You're given small, menial tasks in the beginning under the guise of "take it slow learning everything..."

• During employment: You are never really allowed to fully take on the role you signed up for. The actual work aligned to your skill never comes. For me, I would push- make suggestions, volunteer ideas, offer assistance in other areas where my skills would be useful- but this is all shut down, sabotaged, or completed, while someone else takes the credit for it.

  • You hit a dead end six months to a year in that you never get out of. You leave, thinking that the next experience might be better, and the same pattern occurs again.

• Despite being educated and skilled, you now have a history of job hopping, with attempted, but little realized, measurable success.

And to no one's surprise, I found out later in life that this routinely happens to black women and other women of color in the workplace (and perhaps others, I simply may not have that data yet- let me know if this has happened to you too).

What is happening here? Why do so many of us experience the same thing? It's hard to think these are one-off situations, or personal failures when the pattern is so visible. So, let's talk about it now.

The Undercover Workplace

Here at The Workplace Unfiltered I talk about what I call 'the undercover workplace' quite a bit. The undercover workplace describes the actual behaviors, activities, experiences, processes, and social quality of the workplace- as opposed to the outwardly supported and expressed workplace.

Organizations routinely share how committed they are to diversity and the growth and development of their people- while simultaneously participating in patterned behavior that communicates the exact opposite. The undercover workplace, in most organizations, doesn't align to the values they've put in the handbook- it aligns to a strategic worldview that prioritizes control, advantage, and social positioning. (I'll be hosting a live webinar today breaking this systemic worldview down. See the details here).

These systemic patterns of behavior are designed to centralize power, control, and resources by any means necessary. And if you're someone with integrity, and/simply a person of color, you are seen as a threat to this system and will be treated accordingly until you are pushed out.

These are strong words, but I'm going to write them anyway: There is no middle ground in these types of workplaces- either you align yourself with similar values (causing harm to yourself and others in the process) or you become the threat. Workplace politicking does not protect you in the way you believe it does. If you do feel that way, it's because you've compromised yourself along the way and are no longer viewed as a threat to the system around you. This is not a personal judgement; this is simply how the system operates.

Bait-and-Switch & Other Tactics of the Undercover Workplace

The undercover workplace operates using manipulative tactics, perception management, social engineering and normalization, which is why it's often hard to spot.

In terms of the phenomenon I talked about above, it can be described in a few different ways:

• The Bait-and-Switch: This tactic is commonly used by deceptive organizations in which they hire a candidate for a highly attractive role, only to then significantly (or completely) change the role, workload, job description, and/or expectations later. Their manipulative goal is to get in top talent that they can exploit.

• The "other duties as assigned" trap: This clause is commonly included in job descriptions to allow deceptive organizations to legally shift tasks or responsibilities as they see fit (regardless of the rest of the job description.)

• "Office housework": Menial, administrative, emotional, or logistical tasks like taking notes, scheduling meetings, or organizing events that women (especially black women) are pushed into in corporate spaces, regardless of their skill set or the role they signed on for. This is what has happened to me multiple times.

Often, in workplaces where your leader is insecure or threatened by you, they will employ these tactics to "keep you in your place" and "block" you from outshining them. In terms of discrimination, it's similar- you're "allowed" in the space, but blocked from real opportunity, connection, and thriving in order to hoard power and resources within a particular group. Also, these types of workplaces are in constant fear of being exposed, so they work hard to keep people close who they know will stay silent and follow suit. If that isn't you- you likely will not make it very far.

These are just some of the tactics used to avoid legal liability, while still discriminating and inflicting harm onto others in the workplace. Employment law hasn't quite caught up to the undercover workplace, so there is often little to no recourse for those of us who routinely face this abuse.

So, this is why The Workplace Unfiltered exists- to build awareness of the undercover patterns of manipulation and abuse organizations routinely participate in for power and control. Once we can see and name these patterns, we'll be in a better place to hold organizations (and the destructive people within them) accountable for the harm they cause.

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