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What Your Comfort Costs Us: How Women of Color Reimagine Leadership to Transform Workplace Culture
A woman of color-centered approach to transformative how to build better workplace cultures that resist tokenization, dismantle white supremacy, and empower BIPOC women leaders to thrive
What happens when workplaces put the comfort of white people above the safety of women of color?
Our work environments are toxic. From microaggessions to burnout, the effects of white supremacy at work are evident, and women of color are disproportionately affected. We need solutions for healthier, more inclusive organizations—and the stakes are high.
The Cost of Your Comfort is essential reading for leaders and allies who are motivated to dismantle oppressive structures in the workplace and cultivate truly healthy, inclusive environments. Topics and chapters
Talking About Racism Is How making women of color solely responsible for addressing workplace causes us harm
Checking the Why tokenizing and commodifying women of color impedes true reform
Exploring the (Invisible) Structural Barriers to Leadership and Leadership Resources
How White People’s Comfort Often Comes at the Cost of People of Color’s Safety
Uncovering The Added Burden and Toll of Unpaid and Unseen Emotional Labor
How we Dismantle Supremacist Scaffolding
Plus Dimensions of Care, Rest, and Healing
Featuring personal narratives from 10 women of color in leadership and supported by systemic analysis, The Cost of Your Comfort addresses the pervasive challenges experienced by women of color leaders in their own words—and explores the real-world effects of prioritizing white people's comfort over women of color's material safety. The book also offers practical solutions for any leader looking to transform their workplace culture. By centering empathy and constructive discomfort, The Cost of Your Comfort provides a roadmap for systemic change, empowering leaders to challenge entrenched power dynamics and cultivate healthier, more inclusive workplaces.
What happens when workplaces put the comfort of white people above the safety of women of color?
Our work environments are toxic. From microaggessions to burnout, the effects of white supremacy at work are evident, and women of color are disproportionately affected. We need solutions for healthier, more inclusive organizations—and the stakes are high.
The Cost of Your Comfort is essential reading for leaders and allies who are motivated to dismantle oppressive structures in the workplace and cultivate truly healthy, inclusive environments. Topics and chapters
Talking About Racism Is How making women of color solely responsible for addressing workplace causes us harm
Checking the Why tokenizing and commodifying women of color impedes true reform
Exploring the (Invisible) Structural Barriers to Leadership and Leadership Resources
How White People’s Comfort Often Comes at the Cost of People of Color’s Safety
Uncovering The Added Burden and Toll of Unpaid and Unseen Emotional Labor
How we Dismantle Supremacist Scaffolding
Plus Dimensions of Care, Rest, and Healing
Featuring personal narratives from 10 women of color in leadership and supported by systemic analysis, The Cost of Your Comfort addresses the pervasive challenges experienced by women of color leaders in their own words—and explores the real-world effects of prioritizing white people's comfort over women of color's material safety. The book also offers practical solutions for any leader looking to transform their workplace culture. By centering empathy and constructive discomfort, The Cost of Your Comfort provides a roadmap for systemic change, empowering leaders to challenge entrenched power dynamics and cultivate healthier, more inclusive workplaces.
256 pages, Paperback
Published March 11, 2025
4 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 26, 2025
This is the book that I needed in the moment that I found it.
The power of the browse at a public library is comparable to none. I happened to be, after a tough moment at work, browsing the new books section to collect myself, gathering a sense of connection and peace. I picked this book off the shelf, contemplated not taking it several times, and decided after reading a bit of the intro: why not? It felt relevant.
In What Your Comfort Costs Us, appears my life and of so many other women (and men, others) of color that I have met, each of us trying to make a way in workplaces that claim they desire our presence and our skills, while at the same time pushing, reducing, demoralizing us, and making it harder for us to understand our own minds about what we're experiencing. Although many of the situations that people described are not those I experienced, I definitely have had to reduce myself in certain circumstances in order to not intimidate (white) people, who have their own set ideas of who I am and what I can (should) do.
I dove into this book and read it voraciously for a couple of weeks, and then put it on the shelf (until it was overdue, essentially). I think I needed time to process. In the end, I took copious notes and will be considering how my work life tracks with what I read here, and where I'm trying to go. Reading about the people and situations within is validating. Most vitally, the book confirms that I do indeed have a unique approach to work, based on my cultural background and experiences. That's the book's biggest gift to me, and to those I work with.
Appreciating M. Gabriela Alcalde, and the voices she brought together to tell us these important truths.
The power of the browse at a public library is comparable to none. I happened to be, after a tough moment at work, browsing the new books section to collect myself, gathering a sense of connection and peace. I picked this book off the shelf, contemplated not taking it several times, and decided after reading a bit of the intro: why not? It felt relevant.
In What Your Comfort Costs Us, appears my life and of so many other women (and men, others) of color that I have met, each of us trying to make a way in workplaces that claim they desire our presence and our skills, while at the same time pushing, reducing, demoralizing us, and making it harder for us to understand our own minds about what we're experiencing. Although many of the situations that people described are not those I experienced, I definitely have had to reduce myself in certain circumstances in order to not intimidate (white) people, who have their own set ideas of who I am and what I can (should) do.
I dove into this book and read it voraciously for a couple of weeks, and then put it on the shelf (until it was overdue, essentially). I think I needed time to process. In the end, I took copious notes and will be considering how my work life tracks with what I read here, and where I'm trying to go. Reading about the people and situations within is validating. Most vitally, the book confirms that I do indeed have a unique approach to work, based on my cultural background and experiences. That's the book's biggest gift to me, and to those I work with.
Appreciating M. Gabriela Alcalde, and the voices she brought together to tell us these important truths.
May 21, 2025
Good book - focused predominantly in the non-profit space - but with insights that are transferable to any workplace.
July 14, 2025
A really important read for anyone who leads a team or wants to create a more welcoming and equitable workplace.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews