Organizational invisibles

The other day, during an interview for an academic research project, a high-ranking executive from a major Brazilian company revealed to me that, upon entering the elevator, he encountered a cleaning lady with a bucket and mop in hand. Upon seeing him, she exited the elevator. The executive, finding the situation unusual, asked her the reason for her behavior. Without hesitation, she replied that she had explicit orders to immediately leave the elevator if a man in a suit entered.

In the same research, another executive confided in me that the company instructs receptionists, security guards, and cleaning staff to be as discreet as possible, almost imperceptible to the eyes of executives and clients. He reported that the people who perform these tasks often don't know how to behave appropriately in more upscale environments, since they come from working-class backgrounds. This seemingly trivial case reveals a striking characteristic of Brazilian organizations: the almost humiliating treatment to which people who perform tasks considered less prestigious are subjected in the workplace. Why should a cleaning person be imperceptible to executives in suits and ties? We are talking about the old prejudice of social class, something still very present in Brazilian companies and public organizations.

Fernando Braga da Costa wrote a masterful book called Invisible Men: Accounts of Social Humiliation (Ed. Globo, 2004), in which he recounts his experience working as a street sweeper at the University of São Paulo. Fernando shows how street sweepers are practically invisible in the social fabric of that university, simply because they wear uniforms. Wearing such clothing guarantees near invisibility for the wearer, such is the disregard people have for those who perform manual labor.

The origin of this type of behavior is ancient. Caio Prado Jr. already argued that, in Brazil, many still considered manual laborers as slaves, living in large European palaces where there were hidden paths for servants to circulate without disturbing the nobility. The poor, coming from a lower social class, should go unnoticed, should not bother the rich, who seem to want to live in a world without the presence of poverty and misery. It is as if, by hiding inequality, it ceases to exist.

There seems to be a widespread misconception in corporate culture that an executive is superior to a cleaning staff member or security guard. It's as if being an executive guarantees the holder a privileged position in terms of intelligence and respect. This absurdity ignores the fact that, in a country as unequal as ours, being an executive is, in most cases, merely the consequence of being born into a family with the means to provide education, travel, and all sorts of experiences that enable a person to dress appropriately and behave in sophisticated environments. Economic and cultural inequality should be combated, not reinforced, in the corporate world, where nothing is done for the poor, who are only guaranteed humiliation.

Text originally published in GV Executivo magazine, by FGV.

Rafael Alcadipani is a professor at FGV-EAESP (São Paulo School of Business Administration).