Page 109 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

any, of these apply to your state. There are no guarantees. You may have a case, but you
may be told by an attorney that it is weak. Even having a good case does not mean that
every investigator, judge, jury, or decision-making panel will make a decision in your favor.
Unfortunately, even with a good amount of evidence, the outcomes of these things are often
a gamble.
Speaking up at work is something that must always be handled with diplomacy, intel-
ligence, and emotional intelligence. You know when you are being marginalized at work.
You know when you have made an important recommendation to address some form of
workplace dysfunction or noncompliance and it has been ignored, dismissed, or vetoed.
Sometimes this experience can happen at a workplace when it previously had not hap-
pened to you in that same workplace for years prior. There is always a reason for this type
of exclusionary refusal to share power with someone, no matter who it is. This is where your
use of emotional intelligence and your own resilience will become very important yet again.
You will have to try to figure out why this is happening. Did you provide incorrect informa-
tion regarding an issue and affect your credibility? Did you do, say, or e-mail something
inappropriate? It is always a good idea to consider realistically what you may have done, if
anything, to contribute to such a situation.
However, the reason for this kind of significant shift from HR professionals being
respected, valued, included, and invited to share power to a new dynamic in which one or
more persons at the workplace will begin to disrespect, devalue, exclude, and refuse to share
power with the HR professional is usually due to a leadership change of some kind. It may
be obvious, such as a new leader for the entire company, or it might be as subtle such as a
new VP of another department. Moreover, it may not happen immediately but very gradu-
ally, even over months or years. In fact, usually this experience of being disrespected, deval-
ued, excluded, and not invited to share company power does happen gradually. It can easily
begin with one influential person disliking that you know something they don’t (remember
the inside top of the Monopoly box?) and then spread in any direction, depending upon who
the person is and how much company power he or she has. It can take the form of being
ignored by one or more persons, not having your e-mails or voice mails responded to, or
even being excluded from processes in which you would normally have a role. It can also
take the form of outright hostility, which once realized, will probably shed some light on
why this is happening at all. For example, if there is someone who routinely challenges
whether your well-researched recommendations are correct or who frequently assumes that
you’ve recommended something incorrect or improper, you can probably correctly assume
that this person feels competitive with you for whatever reason. Often it is impossible to
learn the truth about why this might be happening and why people are behaving as they are.
The use of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), EI, and conflict resolution skills will
serve you well in such a situation. While being disrespected, devalued, excluded, and not
invited (or uninvited) to share organizational power can be enormously stressful and diffi-
cult, it is also an opportunity to do any or all on the checklist, to follow.
More in-depth NVC training will be described in Part Six of this book, but for now, it
will be helpful for you to learn the absolute basics of NVC by reviewing the lists of feelings
and needs (and values) in the HR Tools “Things You Can Do to Turn Being/Feeling Devalued
as HR into a Learning Experience” and “Nonviolent Communication Skills,” on pages 100–101.

92 The H R Toolkit