Stop saying ‘smiling’ to women – now is the time to eliminate double quality to this workplace

When we run our social media channels to recognize and respect women’s equality, let’s not forget the daily struggle that women are facing both on our kitchen tables and our conference room tables.

In our workplaces, everyday prejudice women face how we speak, how we look and how we work can slowly go away from us. And sometimes, these comments and actions that can be classified as “innocent errors” affect performance reviews and development and promotion opportunities. All this is hit by our salaries, eventually helping to expand the gender salaries.

In my book, Devil Emails Midnight: What can good leaders learn from bad ownersFor, for, for,. I share that my former boss, whom I named the Chair Leader, always wanted me to be happy. He wanted me to smile like Cheshire Cat or Joker.

“Why are you not a smile? What happened? Don’t worry, be happy!” The chair leader always tells me this, pointing to his mouth and pointing to me to smile. And most of the time when I received this opinion, nothing was really done. I will just stay on my desk, with a smile, focus and seemingly, not smiling. But he wanted me to always smile and always offer happiness, no matter what the circumstances. This made my cheek bones hurt and I just felt tired of offering an excuse to present positive, instead of just doing my job.

So on the occasion of women’s equality, ask women to smile at work. Instead, there are three things that leaders want to focus on breaking prejudice in our workplace.

Relevant

1. Pay attention to performance, not if they are smiling

According to A study, 98 % of women have been reported to be smiling at work during their career, and 15 % said that the request for smiles on demand is for them weekly, if not much frequently. Of course, those who smile can be considered happy, like and accessible.

“Smiling is a lot more associated with a gender marker,” Are the author of women, gender and sexual studies and books Hemo at Yale University, says Marian Laferis, a professor of women, gender, and sexual study at Yale University? “It indicates more sectarian stance on one’s feminine status and life. Although smiling is usually a positive feature, women have to do more than that because we want to make sure that women we are expecting them, which is to take care of others.”

It may be harmless to say women at the workplace to smile. And it reinforces social expectations that women should be pleasant, accessible and others feel more comfortable with a simple smile.

Do not use the “smile” as an indicator whether women are performing or not. Instead of focusing on their facial expressions, pay attention to their performance. Make sure all employees have clear goals and matrix and they understand when and what they are expected to provide. And make time to take a fair review on the basis of their work, and not based on how many times they smile.

Related: If you want to respect the Women’s Equality Day, start re -evaluate the performance impression that you give to women at work

2. Identify and respect how individuals express emotions

I enjoy smiling. But when my ex -boss, the chair leader, asked me to smile on the demand, only when I started to dislike smiling. Sometimes, I just returned a sharp smile to please the situation. And when I’m working on my desk, I’m focusing on completing the work. I am not focused on how I look, if I am smiling or not. I just want to do the best.

For women, smiling at workplace looks like a need. According to Harvard Business Review, “These vast stereotypes not only call black women not only more enmity, aggressive, domineering, irrational, illicit mood and bitter, but they can also be far behind understanding their full potential at the place of work.”

Let’s recognize and respect how women, and all people express their emotions, especially satisfied or happy at work. Depending on the culture and the environment in which you raised, the smile is not always equal to happiness.

For some people, a smile without clear context or reasoning may be suspicious, even a sign of weakness or dishonesty. For some people, there may be a way to make a smiling mask constantly how they are really feeling. Some people, they cannot smile freely at strangers and only smile with close friends or family members where they feel comfortable. Remember that smiling is not the only way to see if anyone thinks he is satisfied and performing well in his work.

Related: Men are more often seen as experts than their women’s counterparts – and it is time to break these gender prejudices.

3. Challenge the idea that smiling is a part of a job requirement

As a leader, do we ask women to smile more than men? And if we do, why do you need a job to be ready to shine a smile on demand? Here we can challenge with respect and break the bias:

Do we call Jeff more times smiling, which is also ready for development? Why are we giving this impression especially to Mitta, more smiles and to be happy in the office?

Mata has achieved a strong performance rating in the last two years, and this year, she has exceeded all its goals and has received positive opinion from her team and age. Can anyone help me understand why we need to smile more?

Why do we need to be erased to smile more often? What does it hurt us to smile? Is his lack of smiles affecting his performance?

The next time you want to ask a woman to smile, stop and stop at work. Why do he need to smile to be successful and happy at work? Help yourself and others to move beyond how it looks and focuses on how business results run to help break prejudice in our workplaces.