Introverts – Photo: madamenoire.com
Blog topics come from everywhere. This one comes from a rather emotional place, as I was speaking the other day with a dear friend of mine who happens to be an introvert. In tears, my friend A. explained how her manager would make her feel ostracized and discriminated against because she’s an introvert. Unlike her other team members, or many people at work who foster a culture of speaking louder and first to assert their expertise in anything, she’s more reflective and less inclined to speak up, at work or in life. As a result, she’s being punished for it.
Listening to her brought back painful memories of starting out in the corporate world as a young introvert myself, painfully forcing myself to speak up in meetings and being constantly on alert for fear of being pushed out of the corporate group. Even better, it brought back memories of being a quiet child at school, who everyone else thought needed to learn to speak up in class.
In the Huffington piece entitled “Speaking Up for Introverts”, author Karra Sherrer speaks about the unfairness of certain environments that tend to stigmatize introverts for lack of understanding them. Yet, if people and institutions bothered to know more about introverts and how they function as people, it would allow them to tap into an exceptional well of talent that is often left dormant.
The sad reality is, more often than not, introverts are punished at work because many higher-ups do not understand how to deal with their type of personality. Instead of saddling them with negative descriptions such as antisocial, loner, unproductive, or even slow, why not foster attitudes in the workplace allowing introverts to bring their best to the table. Attitudes such as playing to introverts’ strengths, including researching, strategizing and writing, or allowing them time to think before talking (you’d be surprised by the great insights that’d be produced).
Do you think introverts are unfairly punished at work?
The Corporate Sis.
Wow great post and an interesting topic. For the most part it is true and I can be somewhat guilty of looking at introverts as not as contributing at work. However, working more with engineers over the years (who tend to be introverts) I have become to have a better understanding of how they work and that they contribute greatly to the company. The key is management training and giving leaders the tools to better understand how to work with individuals as we are not all the same.
Hi Zena, thank you! I commend you for trying to get a better understanding of introverts at work, I believe there’s a wealth of untapped talent out there that very few of us consider for lack of understanding certain types of personalities different from ours. Management training is indeed crucial when it comes to identifying ways of working with and motivating different personalities. Unfortunately, not enough focus is put on it. I am glad as an HR person, you can help others as well as companies understand and help develop introverts at work. Thank you, have a great week-end!
Being an introvert in retail is painful. I have often gone above and beyond for customers and my co-workers; however, it is rarely acknowledged. Instead, customers and bosses will criticize me for things outside of my control, my personality. I do not just throw myself out there for everyone to see. I do not wear my heart or my emotions on my sleeve. They are there and I feel them poignantly every day, but I do not let others see them unless I have come to know them. People too often misinterpret my quietness as being rude.
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