Active Bystander Scenarios (People Managers)
SET #1
What impact will this scenario have on your colleague/team/community?
What potential impact would not disrupting the behaviour have?
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions might you feel in the scenario?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Group 1) A new employee is sharing their story at an A&W community event about why they came to live in Canada. She talks about the anti-homosexuality legislation in her country. Someone interrupts and says, “You don’t look gay.”
(Group 2) You’re in a meeting with a group of your colleagues on the corporate team and a few franchisees. In the middle of the meeting, a franchisee says a racial slur. Everyone falls silent and people exchange uncomfortable glances. The franchisee notices and asks “What? What did I do?”
(Group 3) You notice one of your managers avoids talking to an Asian colleague, preferring to communicate through text or e-mail. If they have to talk, they stand a few feet away from them to talk. They sanitize their hands immediately afterwards. They don’t do this to any of your other non-Asian colleagues. After a meeting ends, this manager says to you that they blame their Asian colleagues for “starting the pandemic in the first place.”
(Group 4) Your supervisor wants to address diversity in the workplace. In meetings, when the topic emerges, they look at your colleague, the only individual who identifies as an Indigenous person on your team. You notice that your colleague shifts uncomfortably and averts their gaze when the topic emerges.
SET #2
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions does the scenario trigger?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Group 1) During an online meeting between you, your supervisor, and two other colleagues, there are questions around A&W’s plans to provide specific support to Black-owned and Indigenous businesses. One of your colleagues seems exasperated and says, “I still really feel like this is favouritism. The white business owners are being hit by COVID just as bad. Maybe this is unpopular right now, but I’m of the school that all lives matter.”
For more information on why “All Lives Matter” is problematic, this article explains it well.
(Group 2) A colleague of yours who is a woman of colour is speaking in a meeting where a manager constantly cuts them off. They don’t seem to realize they’re doing it and nobody is saying anything. When your colleague raises her voice so she can be heard, your supervisor stops her and asks for her to wait until everyone else has finished speaking.
(Group 3) One of your colleagues has voiced offensive, and sometimes discriminatory, comments. This has happened several times. Another colleague, who is a person of colour, has given them feedback on their comments but they aren’t listening and tells them that they’re being overly sensitive and “Everything is political these days!”
(Group 4) A Director says a homophobic/transphobic slur during a meeting. A colleague speaks up about it but the Director brushes it off and says “It was just a joke. Besides, I’m not hurting anyone since nobody from the LGBTQ+ community is here anyway.”