Speaker 0 00:00:00 From Romano Leadership, I'm Oscar Romano. This is Learn Reflect Lead Leadership and D I A development for mission-driven individuals and organizations.
Speaker 2 00:00:12 This episode is titled Identity Taxation, how It's Affecting Your Workplace and What you Can Do about It. This episode is for you if you're a person of color who feels like you're constantly being assigned additional responsibilities at work based on your identity without any additional recognition or compensation. If you're a leader or manager who wants to make sure you're not perpetuating identity taxation in your workplace and you wanna learn a little more on how to address it, or if you're someone who's interested in learning more about identity taxation and it's negative impact on minority group members in the workplace, and how it can be addressed and prevented.
Speaker 2 00:01:02 Today we're gonna talk about identity taxation and what it may be costing you or your staff. Could you translate this document for me, please? Are you available to translate it? After school meeting? From the moment I stepped foot inside a school, it became customary for me to get these requests. Then when I became an administrator, not only would I get these requests, but I would make them as well. I thought it was a part of the job. I didn't realize I had experienced a form of identity taxation. Even worse, when I became a leader, I didn't know I was perpetuating identity taxation with my staff.
Speaker 2 00:01:44 Identity taxation can negatively impact members of minority groups at work due to their minority group status. They are disproportionately tasked with responsibilities. Their identity, specific knowledge, experience, and skills are necessary to complete the work. Nobody else can do the work, so it falls onto them. But the additional work they complete isn't acknowledged, recognized, or compensated. That's when it's identity taxation. You see people doing less work, getting paid the same as you, and it's all because of your identity. You wanna hope that it's an accidental oversight, but you fear that it's willful exploitation. Well, how do you know if you're experiencing identity taxation? Well, here's some examples. Now, the following examples, assume that a additional duties are assigned and that there's no appropriate adjustment to compensation or workload. All right, first example, translation duties. If you were born into a family that speaks a foreign language, you probably put in a lot of work to learn that language.
Speaker 2 00:03:05 It didn't happen by chance. Richard says that it takes 402,200 hours, so about $10,000 to $55,000 to learn a foreign language. This skill is a valuable one. If you speak a foreign language, translation duties might be normal. These might include translating meetings and documents. You might even be used to being the face of the organization in that language. That's a lot of extra work. Another example is being the go-to person for students of color. When other staff members can't handle certain students, they might go to the staff of color for help. This isn't random. Many staff of color work hard to develop strong relationships with students of color. They see themselves in their students and they wanna help them succeed.
Speaker 2 00:04:00 So they're connecting with them on this deeper level, but this also means that they become the go-to person for staff who are struggling with students of color, staff of color then have to do more work during and after school to support these students. Another example is as a diversity representative, if you're one of a few black staff members, you might assume you're in charge of planning for Black History Month. It doesn't matter that you don't like planning events or even if you're not that good at it, it's too important to ignore. So you take on the work. You might constantly be asked to attend different events or to be featured in their ad campaigns. You wanna believe that you're more than just their token minority for these moments and, and the now. Something else that that's important to consider with identity taxation is a double tax.
Speaker 2 00:04:57 There's a double tax when nobody even acknowledges that there's a need for the work you're completing. It's a double tax because you're doing extra work that people don't even consider necessary. At least when extra responsibilities are assigned to you, it's because someone sees a need for them, or you're being double taxed because you're doing more work and people don't even think that it's worth doing, but you know it's necessary. So how can leaders avoid identity taxation? Well, it's not identity taxation. When you have a reasonable workload or appropriate level of compensation, this makes it pretty straightforward for organizational leaders to address, number one, talk to the staff member before assigning them extra duties. For example, not all Latinos speak Spanish. A leader can't assume that a staff member speaks Spanish because they're Latino, right? And a leader shouldn't assign extra duties to somebody without knowing if they can complete them or without knowing if they have the time to complete them.
Speaker 2 00:06:06 Number two, they need to adjust the staff member's workload or provide extra compensation. For example, staff members volunteer to plan Black History Month celebrations, even though they volunteer leaders can offer to compensate them for their work or to shift other other duties that they might have. And number three, leaders need to ask a staff member for input on how to complete the work. This demonstrates a value for the staff member that goes beyond task completion. For example, if you regularly ask a staff member to be the face of diversity, get their perspective. Talk to 'em about where you can make improvements. Seek their, seek their input and demonstrate that you have value for them beyond just being that, that face or that representative. All right. Now it's time to commit. Have you ever experienced identity taxation or witness it happening to somebody else? How did it make you feel? And what actions did you take in response? As a leader or manager, how can you ensure that you're not perpetuating identity taxation in your workplace? And what steps can you take to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and equitably regardless of their background or identity?
Speaker 2 00:07:26 Lemme know how it goes. Thanks.
Speaker 0 00:07:29 That's it for this episode of Learn, reflect Lead. Thank you for watching on YouTube or listening via podcast. If you're interested in more, you can find
[email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn, a Romano Leadership. If you like this episode, please share with your friends. Subscribe and leave a review. I'm Oscar Romano. Until next time.
