Podcasts Business Community Signal The Toll of Ageism and Abuse on Community Professionals

The Toll of Ageism and Abuse on Community Professionals

Published: Aug. 31, 2020, 9:30 a.m.

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On Community Signal, we\\u2019ve spoken to several professionals that have left the industry for other pastures. While their reasons are never exactly the same, there\\u2019s certainly a trend amongst professionals in the industry, particularly women, who bore the brunt of online abuse.

As Patrick says in this episode, \\u201cif you haven\\u2019t received abuse then you\\u2019re probably not doing everything you can for your community, that\\u2019s just a sad reality. I wish that it wasn\\u2019t the case. I wish that you could somehow maintain order without making yourself a target.\\u201d In a profession where our responsibilities include moderating conversations, deleting posts, and banning people, yes, it\\u2019s to be expected that we will make some people unhappy.

But as Patrick and\\xa0Kellie Parker\\xa0discuss, it should also be expected that our colleagues and managers understand the realities, toll, and potential dangers of this work and plan for how to support one another through it. The mental and emotional toll of working in community management is real and something that we should all be aware of, no matter what rung of the ladder we\\u2019re on.

Kellie shares exactly how the mental and emotional aspects of working in community played out for her, where there must be organizational support, and the responsibility of speaking up for our own health and wellbeing. She now speaks openly and candidly about the sexism that she faced, but back then, she admits that her initial reaction was to \\u201cbe professional\\u201d and power through. For professionals that don\\u2019t have institutional support, another coworker to cover for them, or the flexibility to miss a paycheck or take a personal day, the notion of self-care in the face of abuse may not be as easy as it seems. We hope that Kellie\\u2019s experience encourages anyone listening to think about how they can better support those that they work with, from an individual perspective and an organizational perspective.

Patrick and Kellie also discuss:

  • The sexism faced by women in gaming and community management
  • How workplaces can support community managers
  • The \\u201cmagic community wand\\u201d and how to work against it

Our Podcast is Made Possible By\\u2026

If you enjoy our show, please know that it\\u2019s only possible with the generous support of our sponsors:\\xa0Vanilla, a one-stop shop for online community and\\xa0Localist, plan, promote, and measure events for your community.

Big Quotes

No matter how credible a threat is, it still impacts you (6:34):\\xa0\\u201cA lot of rape threats or death threats [that I received] were not serious. I knew it was somebody that was mad because I deleted their posts or I banned them. \\u2026 But there is a compounding nature over time when you get told 10 times a day, \\u2018I\\u2019m going to find your house. I\\u2019m going to sneak in your bedroom. I\\u2019m going to kill you.\\u2019 I know that\\u2019s not really what\\u2019s going to happen but \\u2026 there is an emotional cost for that, that is often not addressed.\\u201d \\u2013Kellie Parker

The toll that community management takes on professionals (14:52):\\xa0\\u201cA lot of people who have not done [community management] and do not understand the job shrug their shoulders and say [abuse is] part of the job. Really, we need to be asking for support. Whether it\\u2019s access to licensed counselors, whether it\\u2019s rotation in the job. \\u2026 That portion of the job is not often discussed, and it needs to be. People need to understand that they\\u2019re putting their mental health and emotional health on the line for this job.\\u201d \\u2013Kellie Parker

The emotional health of your community team matters (23:08):\\xa0\\u201cIf you\\u2019re churning out your community person every 18 months, you should really look internally at why that would be. It can be a number of factors. It doesn\\u2019t have to be that they are taking abuse. It can be poor compensation, bad workplace environment, whatever, but if people are burning out of that role over and over again, there\\u2019s probably a greater than 50% chance that [abuse] is the reason.\\u201d \\u2013@patrickokeefe

Institutional knowledge builds stronger communities (25:10):\\xa0\\u201cI want the fans to see me as their inside person at the company, and I want people at the company to see me as their inside person with the fans. If you have new people in that role every six months, every year, every two years; you never get that sustained growth. You never have that institutional knowledge.\\u201d \\u2013Kellie Parker

Stay adept to your team\\u2019s work (35:25):\\xa0\\u201cIf you\\u2019re in a role where you have to support community professionals, whether you are a director of community, VP of community, or if it just happens to fall under you, you really have to educate yourself on the stresses of this job. If you don\\u2019t, then you\\u2019re going to lose people and the people that are reporting up to you are not going to be as efficient in their jobs or as happy and satisfied in their jobs.\\u201d \\u2013@patrickokeefe

When \\u201cculture fit\\u201d is used as cover for something else (42:53):\\xa0\\u201cI can look around your company, and I can see there is nobody over the age of 30. When you tell me I\\u2019m not a culture fit, I know exactly what that means. I am 44 years old. I am female. I am not, by traditional beauty standards, beautiful. That\\u2019s what you mean. Especially if it\\u2019s for a community manager role where they want someone to be in front of the community and lead them. I\\u2019m not what you\\u2019re looking for, and you\\u2019ll tell me it\\u2019s culture fit.\\u201d \\u2013Kellie Parker

Kellie\\u2019s career change from social media and community management to real estate (47:14):\\xa0\\u201cBeing a real estate agent is about relationships. It\\u2019s building relationships with people, helping people, taking care of people. That\\u2019s a lot of [what] my job [was] as a community manager and a social media manager.\\u201d \\u2013Kellie Parker

About Kellie Parker

After discovering chat site Talk City as a user,\\xa0Kellie Parker\\xa0ended up taking a job with parent company LiveWorld in 1999. This began a foray into community work that took her to PCWorld, Macworld, and SEGA, where Kellie spent more than six years. This was followed by senior social media jobs at Seasun and healthcare company, Abbott, before leaving the digital space to become a REALTOR.

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Transcript

Your Thoughts

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you\\u2019d like to share, please leave me a comment,\\xa0send me an email\\xa0or a\\xa0tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported\\xa0Community Signal on Patreon.

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