Embolden Voices: Speaking up to end workplace mistreatment

Sometimes the best things come from our worst moments. Or perhaps; when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Chelsie Smith did just that.

A third year PhD in Management candidate at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, Chelsie transformed her own adverse experience in the workplace into a Vanier Graduate Scholarship for her research in workplace mistreatment. (The first Sprott student to win a Vanier!)

Lemons to lemonade, Chelsie has cemented her passion in research and in creating constructive solutions that will foster a positive workplace culture, help individuals gain access to support and knowledge, and to empower individuals to speak out safely against workplace mistreatment.

Mistreatment in the workplace has long been an issue, yet it is becoming more covert, and voice (speaking up about harmful interactions) is not always an available option—particularly in precarious work (characterized as poorly paid, unprotected, and insecure).

The problem seems to stem from the organizational approach on how to foster a positive work environment. Companies that create “good” jobs will (more often) focus some resources to motivate, support, and provide employees with tools to succeed. The “bad” jobs (most often precarious jobs) may tend to push employees without concern for their well-being, quality of work environment, or desire for retention, development, or support.

Moreover, precarious work often aligns with marginalized groups and individuals who may need to stay in their role to simply live a subsistence lifestyle. There is a chasm that exists not only between good and bad workplaces, but as well as in the literature. Precarious work environments are generally overlooked in mainstream voice management research, even though psychological safety and trust—two key factors for voice—are less common in precarious work contexts.

Working under the supervision of Angela Dionisi (Associate Professor, Management), Chelsie’s research will focus on the intersection between mistreatment, voice, and precarious work.

Chelsie will investigate lived experiences of mistreated employees in precarious/low-income work and determine if and how much they speak up about the misconduct, their motivation for doing so, and to understand the barriers they may have faced preventing them from voicing their experience(s).

Chelsie’s research will not only explore untapped areas of precarious workplace mistreatment, but she will further delve into bystander behaviour with the goal to design and implement interventions that will help give support through training and education on safe voice practices—both within an organization and beyond.

As a target of workplace mistreatment herself, Chelsie did not have the tools to navigate incident reporting with success,

“Knowing the right thing to do was difficult. There was no clear path forward.”

Chelsie’s personal experience reveals how a target can often suffer beyond the mistreatment from a lack of support from the organization that fails to provide effective solutions. It is often the target, not the perpetrator, who is penalized; most often having to acquiesce to minimize disruption to everyone else.

“It’s imperative that functional solutions, pathways, and strategies are in place to first and foremost help the target navigate the problem effectively, fairly, and with their emotional well-being nurtured.”

Positive voice management is a key predictor of future voice. If an issue is managed positively, the target is more likely to use their voice in the future. Ultimately, Chelsie’s research can contribute to organizational management of workplace mistreatment and foster positive workplace culture. As well, provide the vocabulary and tools to empower individuals with the confidence to use their voice safely. What’s more, Chelsie’s research can enlighten government to create policies that incentivize companies to adopt effective employee outreach support and education.

“We need organizations to work as a collective and foster a positive work environment, a safe space to communicate, and to ultimately deter individuals from acting in harmful ways.” 

Chelsie has already amassed an impressively robust research profile and co-authored papers within both the business and psychology fields (where she first started out), including investigating “mansplaining” as a form of incivility in the workplace. As well, Chelsie is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 SSHRC Doctoral Award; the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Ontario Graduate Carleton University Scholarship; the 2019 Sprott Graduate Award in Business—and of course her highly coveted Vanier Scholarship.

But, most impressively, Chelsie has the courage—despite the vulnerability of her story—to use her experience to create solutions.

Chelsie is most definitely turning those lemons into lemonade.