Competency Checking in the Modern Workplace

A decade ago, when I was earlier in my career, I experienced an incident that continues to follow. During a retreat, our team participated in a group activity to generate ideas about the program logic model. When it was my turn, I suggested that any initiative should have an element of autodidacticism. Expecting to build on this point or continue with the conversation, there were no comments. Instead, my boss noted I had used a “ten-dollar word,” followed by snickering amongst the group, who then moved on to break time.  

I had trouble articulating what I had experienced at the moment, but I felt demoralized. My contribution felt like a joke that didn’t resonate with the audience. Except I wasn’t joking. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first, nor the last, time I experienced such a microaggression. At its worst, I questioned my sanity in such situations. Now more than two decades into my career, I can confidently say that this is common among marginalized individuals.

Shari Dunn, an EDI consultant and author of Qualified, answers precisely what I experienced and have been puzzled by. It’s called competency checking. There are three primary ways competency checking is deployed in the modern workplace, and its roots are deeply crystallized from centuries of systemic racism. When the majority population perceives anything that threatens them, in this case, intelligence, it evokes an unconscious bias and cognitive dissonance. Competency checking illustrates three things happening:

Assumption – Manifests in low expectations, marginalization, and extreme micromanagement. Suppose someone assumes that they are intellectually inferior. In that case, they may question the individual’s qualifications more closely during an interview and, once hired, pay much more attention to their work while looking for any mistakes.

Expression - Particular surprise or unease with open displays of BIPOC intelligence, which can trigger requests or demands to confirm how it was acquired and whether it’s the result of rote memorization or actual, integrated knowledge. This can be manifested as dismissal, quizzing, argument, and tokenization.

Activation - A feeling of fear when confronted with a BIPOC person who holds any authority, especially someone in a leadership position. This manifests as requests for identification, undefined feelings of unfairness, anger, and unease.

The only way to truly deal with the impact of competency checking is to acknowledge that it is happening. It’s no wonder there is a lack of vertical career trajectory, which refers to the absence of opportunities for employees to advance to higher-level positions within an organization, often resulting in career stagnation for BIPOC individuals, and we're not just talking about libraries.  

 I’ve seen so many colleagues’ careers plateau, where an individual remains in the same role or at the same level for most of their career without significant advancement. I can certainly speak to this experience, and I can say it hurts the morale of an organization. It’s my hope that Shari Dunn’s work continues to help those who are in the ruts be more inspired that there are actions that can be taken and agency in one’s role if they feel underappreciated. We just have to look for it.