When you’re clearly being held to different standards at work than everyone else

I could rename this post to “What it’s like to be black in the British workforce”. Being held to different standards is not only down to race, it can be down to many things. Say one wrong thing and you may never get treated the same way ever again. Being quiet and not following the crowd comes with challenges.

Unfortunately, I do all these things whilst being black, I’m obviously going to be a target.

Most of my treatment comes from race and what people expect from black people. Prejudice. People will hire me based on a good interview and being well-spoken apparently, but will still expect me to be a negative presence in the office.

Because people expect you to be useless they’ll try and make it come true by treating you differently. This includes things like exclusion, not explaining tasks to you properly, overanalysing everything you do, and reporting you — constantly.

Again, not all down to race, but it’s the biggest factor. I’ve seen white people take weeks, sometimes months off with fake illnesses and they’re still treated with respect.

It’s a constant

It's annoying as it’s a constant that I have to put up with at work, and it’s obvious too which is painful. Most…