‘I was so worn down’ - a first-hand account of racism and sexism in the broking industry

Several sexism and racism scandals have blighted the insurance industry over the years. The Black Lives Matter protests have invigorated the ongoing debate over diversity in the sector, but how much has really changed and how far is left to go before we can say real progress has been made?

Insurance Times recently caught up with a mixed race woman who, after several years of working with a high-profile UK broker, decided to leave the industry for good due to a catalogue of racist and sexist incidents.

Like many, SM’s route into a career in insurance was by accident rather than design. After leaving college, she applied for a job at a regional call centre of a major broker as she needed money, but she was at a loss as to what to do with her life.

She quickly progressed and became a team manager at the age of 18, which was “a peculiar” dynamic as she was also the youngest person on the team, she said.

After a year in the job, she moved internally to a project coordinator role in London. It should have been a dream move, but it was here that she first experienced problems.

She encountered a senior colleague who would blurt out openly racist comments, but these views were shrugged off by others.

“I was always aware of it, but I was quite protected by some good managers initially,” she told Insurance Times.

’People assumed I was the PA’

SM continued: “I’d gone to meetings where people assumed I was the PA, comments that certain women had only gotten where they are because they had slept with someone, some of the men used to ‘rate’ the women in the office on how they looked, that type of thing.”

She passed the comments off as “a generational thing” and “locker room talk”, and tried to keep her head down. “I was very naïve. I knew these things happened, but I didn’t realise how bad they were, or perhaps I did but didn’t want to make a fuss.”

By this point SM had been with the broker for two years.

A chance conversation with a broker friend and colleague offered SM the chance to become a broker herself, and she once again changed roles and joined a new division.

But unfortunately things went from bad to worse.

Her manager would make comments on what she was wearing, for example showing disapproval, or suggesting she was dressing in a certain way to get ahead.

He would also make comments such as: “You’re not serious about being a broker because you keep hanging out with the administrator.

“You didn’t go to the gym today, you’re going to gain weight.

“Only pretty girls succeed as brokers.

“Did your mum always go for brown men?”

”When I used to walk to my office, I would start to feel panic in my chest. I felt tears in my eyes and I told my mum ‘I can’t do this any more. I hate it’ ”

She raised her concerns with a senior member of staff, but he replied that he didn’t think the comments had been intended detrimentally, passing them off as office banter.

After that, she approached a woman in a senior position at the company to seek advice. The woman told her if she spoke up then she would risk her career. SM decided not to take things further, but continued to document her experience.

And then it got really bad.

SM felt she could no longer cope with the situation and went off sick for two weeks. “It had totally worn me down. When I joined the team, I was full of energy, but my manager just completely broke me.”

Instead of being sympathetic, she was asked whether or not she had any proof to back up her claims, as well as asked if she had considered looking for another job.

But she did not have physical evidence, as these were verbal comments as opposed to anything written. “My manager wasn’t that stupid,” SM recounts. All she had were her own written notes with dates the incidents occurred, and a colleague had the same.

She wrote her full account in a formal email, but despite chasing several times, she never heard anything back.

SM also overheard racist comments directed at a black colleague, dressed up as ‘office banter’.

“They were saying things like ‘he only eats rice and peas’, and ‘do you have to put mayonnaise in your hair to stop it being curly?’

“He never said anything though. He would say ‘it’s not worth it’. It was too much stress to call them out.

“He tried to draw the least amount of attention to himself. He came in and did his work, and left. He just wanted to get paid and go home.”

Staying on

Despite her experiences at the broker, SM decided to stay on as she “couldn’t afford to quit”, with rent and bills to pay.

She applied for several internal roles, but kept missing out to “young men who’s dad or uncle worked in the industry”.

“They always had a better link to someone than I did,” she added.

She eventually managed to find a new broking role in another of the business’s divisions.

But as she was about to start her new job, the hiring manager left and was replaced by someone lacking managerial experience.

When she protested at what was effectively a demotion, explaining that this was not the role she had been hired for, her manager replied: “you’re getting very emotional”, which she insists she wasn’t.

“He got someone who headed up broker support to speak to me, as though I would understand more as it was ‘woman to woman’ as such.”

”They don’t want to see diversity because it breaks up the culture they’ve enjoyed for so long”

And things didn’t get any better after that. SM was treated as her manager’s personal assistant, being told to schedule meetings for him.

By this time, her team had imploded, with no effective management and colleagues were being transferred to different teams as part of a restructuring process.

“We’re making you redundant,” she was told. The job offer had been rescinded and she was told there was a recruitment freeze.

Fortunately for SM, she found a new broker role in the City with a different firm.

New start

At the new broker, things started to fall apart too when SM began to be increasingly subjected to bullying behaviour from a senior colleague.

There was a ‘lads’ culture’ at the firm, where the men would regularly go out for long boozy lunches for hours and not invite their female colleagues.

Yet SM would be told that she was not allowed to take any further breaks if she had been to the bathroom.

“I couldn’t do it any more. There was not enough money to make it worth putting up with.

“When I used to walk to my office, I would start to feel panic in my chest. I felt tears in my eyes and I told my mum ‘I can’t do this any more. I hate it’.

“I was so worn down.”

In the end, she left for a lower paid administrator role. Upon leaving, the colleague who had bullied her said: “You’ve never really been suited for this career have you?”

Insecurity

SM puts the behaviour she experienced down to insecurity.

“The industry had been good to them. If they’ve been there for 20 years and done very well, they saw [people like me joining] as disruption of a pretty good thing they had going on.

“They used to say in jest: ‘the white straight male is most at risk and the most prejudiced group of people nowadays’ because of diversity quotas and the diversity mandate. They were essentially discriminated against, they would say.”

The problems she encountered can be attributed to a mixture of individual behaviour and company culture, she added.

There was a ‘code of silence’, based on monetary concerns. The more money teams made, the more likely cultural concerns such as those she raised were ignored by the higher ups.

“Companies say they’re diverse, but that’s not led by the individual managers,” she said.

“And because it’s about money, it’s like a boys’ club. They don’t want to see diversity because it breaks up the culture they’ve enjoyed for so long. So they remain silent to protect their own. They’re never called out, so they never do anything to rectify their behaviour.”

Need to speak out

What advice would SM give to others facing similar behaviour to herself?

“Speak out and document it. No one is going to fight for you. You have to be strong and you have to fight to call it out.

“Those in a hiring position need to be mindful of supporting people.

“It’s not enough just to bring different kinds of people into the industry. You need to ensure the company culture supports people from different backgrounds once they’re hired.

“If you’re a man in the industry, you need to ensure you’re also amplifying the voices of others in your organisation who don’t normally get heard or listened to as much. I never felt like I had male allies.

These days SM is much happier and working away from the insurance industry, but as time has passed, she has become more bitter about her experience as she comes to terms with how toxic an environment it was.

Most of those who tormented her, as well as others, are still working in the industry - some in senior roles.

“The only way you’ll see change is to keep speaking out,” she said.