Gordon lays a clear path for addressing microaggressions and developing effective communication skills in the workplace. To respond to microaggressions, Gordon advises the following.

Process: Process your feelings about the occurrence.

Ask: Ask to clarify understanding.

Understand: Seek to understand the message, context, and intent.

Share: Share your feelings and perspective.

Explore: Explore ways to reframe the conversation and correct behaviors.

Using Gordon's process as a model, consider the following case.

DeShawn is a project manager at an engineering firm in Atlanta. He has worked at the firm for $16$ years, and has seen the industry transform in his nearly two decades of experience. While he has worked hard to become a senior manager, it is not lost on him that his is the only Black person in leadership at the firm. Being older than most of his colleagues, many who are just out of college or graduate school, DeShawn also tends not to socialize much with co$-$workers outside of the office. With the exception of the annual team building picnic and holiday parties, he tends to devote his free time to his husband and two children. DeShawn often hears his younger colleagues making jokes that he finds offensive. Sometimes they call him $$old man$$ or $$grandpa$$ and while he knows it is a joke, it is starting to get annoying. He has also heard them talking in the break room, using phrases like $$that$\text{'}$s so gay$$ and $$don$$t be ghetto.$$ While he doesn$$t want to make a big deal of it$,$ he also wishes they would use another phrase.

Situations like this are all too common in the workplace. Using this case and Gordon$$s definition of and process for dealing with microaggressions, adopt one of the following roles:

Supervisor: You are the department supervisor and have witnessed the behavior of some of your direct reports. You suspect that these things bother DeShawn.

DeShawn: While you have not yet confronted your colleagues or spoken to your manager, the constant stream of $$jokes$$ is starting to interfere with your work.

Mark: A new hire in the department, you want to be part of the group, but you also don$$t like that your colleagues seem to not understand how uncomfortable you are making DeShawn.

Marie: You are the head of HR and have started to notice that DeShawn is having a difficult time with some of his younger colleagues.

In adopting one of the above personas, explain how you would handle the situation. Summarize and assess the impact of the microaggression$($s$)$ and use Gordon's model to describe a course of action for your selected character. How should they address the issue at the engineering firm? What can they do to create a more inclusive work environment?