Active Bystander Scenarios
SET #1
What impact will this scenario have on your colleague/team/community?
What potential impact would not disrupting the behaviour have?
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions might you feel in the scenario?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Groups 1, 2) Your colleague is hiring at BCAA. They have received top three candidate resumes for a new position. They tell you (their colleague) they are going to tell Talent Acquisition they are not interested in the first candidate - “I’ll tell Talent Acquisition the candidate doesn’t have the experience I am looking for.” When you ask why, they state, “Well actually, I checked out her LinkedIn profile. I’m looking for someone younger and ideally a male, and who is going to be good with technology. I can tell she’s not going to be a good fit.”
(Groups 3, 4) Your leader wants to address diversity in the workplace. In meetings, when the topic emerges, they seem to look at your colleague, the only individual who identifies as an Indigenous person on your team. You notice that your colleague shifts uncomfortably and averts their gaze when the topic emerges.
(Groups 5, 6) A call centre agent answers a call and asks how they can help. The member interrupts by saying, “I’m not racist, but can I speak to someone who speaks English? That doesn’t have an accent?” Your colleague insists they can be helpful. The member persists with their demand, and your colleague finds a way to pass them onto another call centre agent.
(Groups 7, 8) A member is in line at your service location. Your colleague lets the member know they're available to help them. The member looks at your colleague who is noticeably a person of colour. The member says, “I’ll just wait for her to be free?”, and she points to a white team member. When that team member is available, the member quietly says, “Oh, I’m glad you're free now. I was really hoping to be helped by someone that was born here and doesn’t have an accent. ”
(Groups 9, 10) Your colleague pulls you aside and tells you that they helped a member who expressed that they were happy that a white teller was available to help them. The member explained that they didn’t like being helped by an agent with an accent (see scenario above). Your colleague apologized to the member, but confesses to you that they felt bad doing so, expressing they know they shouldn’t have.
SET #2
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions does the scenario trigger?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Groups 1, 2) An employee is sharing with colleagues that today is the 10-year anniversary of their arrival in Canada. Their colleagues ask about their immigrant story and why they came to live in Canada. The employee talks about the anti-homosexuality legislation in her country-of-origin. Someone interrupts her and says, “But, you don’t look gay.”
(Groups 3, 4) During an informal online meeting between you and colleagues, there is discussion around BCAA’s media posts relating to Stop Asian Hate. One of your colleagues seems exasperated and says, “I still really feel like this is favouritism – one moment it’s BLM, then there is support for Indigenous communities, now it’s #StopAsianHate. What’s next? Maybe this is unpopular right now, but I’m of the school that all lives matter.”
(Groups 5, 6) You’re helping another member when you overhear a member at the next counter saying that he will pull all his business from BCAA because he feels that your colleague had racially profiled him.
(Groups 7, 8) A customer comes into an ASC to get their vehicle serviced. The service advisor is a woman, and greets the customer to gather information. The customer states “I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk to Mike – the mechanic.
(Groups 9, 10) You overhear a colleague talking about the anti-racism effort at BCAA, referring to it as part of “the socialist agenda.” During a team meeting Q&A, the same colleague appears agitated and comments, “So, we’re all about diversity now and I feel like there is a contradiction. Let’s be honest. I mean, I feel like we’re not allowed to have a diversity of opinions on diversity?”