Cassie is a marketing professional in her late twenties who joined a new project at her firm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of working remotely, she is proud of her contributions to the project and feels valued by her new team members. However, after downloading the transcript from a recent virtual meeting, she discovered that two of her coworkers had been badmouthing her appearance in what they believed was a “private” chat. Cassie is embarrassed and heartbroken that her colleagues would speak about her in such disparaging terms. She is torn about whether to confront her coworkers, bring the issue to her Human Resources Department, or simply pretend that nothing occurred.
The Protest
Anna is a politically-active middle school teacher. She recently attended a rally in her city in support of progressive causes, including transgender rights. At the rally, a small group of counter-protesters had gathered in opposition, and people were chanting to express hate for the LGBT community. Anna was shocked to see that one of the counter-protesters was a fellow teacher from her school, Claire, who Anna didn’t know well but immediately recognized. Anna decided not to confront Claire but instead snapped a picture of the counter-protestors, including Claire, and posted her photo on social media so that it was visible to her family and friends, including some other teachers at the school. The next day, Anna felt uncomfortable. Several other teachers she was connected with on social media had commented on the photo: some were shocked Claire was in attendance, but others criticized Anna for posting the photo in the first place. Anna wondered whether sharing the photo was the right thing to do and feared that word would get back to Claire.
Hurtful Meme
Madeline is a nurse who works in the emergency room of a hospital. Upon her hiring, she discovered that Paul, one of her classmates from nursing school, also worked at the hospital and would be her co-worker. After working a few shifts together, the two connected on social media. One day, Madeline saw that Paul had “liked” a meme on social media that expressed anti-immigrant sentiment, decrying immigrants as a drain on resources, including healthcare. As soon as she saw the meme, Madeline felt uneasy. The hospital where Madeline and Paul worked served many in their city’s immigrant communities, and Madeline was herself the children of immigrant parents. The meme hit close to home for her. Additionally, Madeline considered herself friendly with Paul, and he was in a more senior position to her on the nursing staff.
Finding Boundaries
Jay and Logan have been co-workers and friends for several years. Recently, Logan started texting Jay a lot, sometimes every day. At first, Jay was happy to be talking to Logan out of work, as they had always been friendly with one another. But Logan was having some family difficulties with his spouse, and his home life had become stressful. Jay wanted to be supportive, but lately the texting had become overwhelming. Furthermore, Jay noticed that Logan wasn’t contributing as much to their shared projects, using his home life as an excuse, which left Jay working overtime in order to meet their deadlines. Jay cared about Logan and wanted to be a good friend. At the same time, the texting was becoming burdensome, and their work wasn’t getting done efficiently. Jay felt it was unfair that he was having to pick up Logan’s slack and put in extra hours. Jay wondered how best to set boundaries with Logan and get their work back on track.
The Admissions Dilemma
Alex was recently accepted to a prestigious college and joined a private online group made up of other accepted students. In the group, students were exchanging inappropriate jokes. Some jokes were hateful towards certain groups of people. Alex was taken aback by what the other students were sharing, but also unsure of what college would be like and anxious to make new friends. After reading some of the other students’ posts, Alex contributed a joke that mocked a minoritized group. A few weeks later, the college's admissions team learned about the online group and decided to take back admissions offers from students who contributed hateful content, including Alex. Alex was no longer welcome to attend the university.