Last week I talked about acting together in small ways. About how supporting each other, even briefly, can change how an issue is received and how it can address how alone or how supported people feel when they raise their issue.
Sometimes, though, those early steps don’t resolve the issue. You talk with your neighbors, you support each other in meetings, and the problem still sits there. That doesn’t mean the issue isn’t important or that people don’t care. Often it just means that too few people know it’s happening.
In those situations, what’s usually missing isn’t effort. It’s visibility.
For a long time, I didn’t think much about what I wore to work. That changed when I started wearing my WPEA shirt on days when we had our monthly member meetings. I felt like since I was running the meetings, I should wear my shirt. It just made me feel more official.
On those days, when I walked around campus, people would stop me to ask whether there was a meeting at noon that day. There were also a few times when I wore the shirt without thinking about the calendar at all. On those days I still got questions about a meeting that wasn’t actually happening that day. That’s when it really clicked for me that people were already paying attention and looking for cues, even when I hadn’t sent any messages nor announced anything.
That’s what coworker signaling does. It makes it easier for people to notice something without any conversation, they just have to glance in a direction. It doesn’t require anyone to speak up publicly, and it doesn’t require a confrontation. It just creates openings for conversation.
We should be building towards a culture where when people see a button, a shirt, or a flyer, it alerts them that there’s a concern, and if they don’t know what it is, then they should ask. It reduces fear because it shows that someone else is already willing to be visible. Over time, those small signals add up and make it easier for more people to step into the conversation when they’re ready.
It’s also important to be clear about who these signals are for. While management may see them, the primary audience is coworkers. Signaling works because it invites conversation between people who already share the same workplace and many of the same pressures.
For people working in person, signaling might look like wearing something related to the issue or putting up a flyer where coworkers naturally pass by. For remote workers, it can take other forms, such as a virtual background, an email signature, or a profile image that shows up in meetings.
My favorite part of this step is that signaling works best when it’s low effort and ongoing. You don’t have to organize a meeting or make an announcement. You just have to be visible.
Wear our color, that’s all you’ve got to do. That action will bring the conversations to you.
Once an issue is visible inside the workplace, it becomes easier to talk about it collectively. That shared awareness is what prepares people for the next steps, which we’ll talk about next week when we look at what happens as issues move into public view.
Joey Hicklin – WPEA Organizer & IT Admin
