Gender Equality Training in the workplace

[Anothernamechange3]

Hi, has anybody received gender equality training at work from a company called Unboxd Diversity Solutions? I'm interested to know beforehand what the content of this type of course might be. Many thanks in advance.

[KittenKong]

Check out their website. It seems to be all about trans and non binary. Looks... tedious. I wonder how much your company is paying for this and what other training they supply to balance the bias. I suspect you will be asked to announce your pronouns/ add them to your email footers.

So I guess equality for those under the equality act can go whistle?

[Anothernamechange3]

Yes these are my fears too. I’m trying to work out how to approach it, and whether I want to just opt out of it or raise concerns about the training for everyone. I think some of the recent court cases will help me to defend my view, and also want to make it clear that I strongly believe nobody should receive abuse/have problems in the workplace because of the clothes they wear or the name they use. However the more I read about some of the issues, I do feel that some aspects that I suspect might be in this training in my opinion could risk harm to others, particularly women and children.

I felt that knowing a bit more about the content of the training might give me something concrete to raise, rather than it sounding like I just don’t want to learn about trans issues.

I saw some good links on the thread about DEI policy that I will look at in more depth.

I just worry that certain views/opinions/ideologies are going to be presented as fact and I’m not sure that on the actual training session is the best place to raise concerns.

[Anothernamechange3]

Basically I want to be able to raise legitimate concerns that I can back up without being labelled transphobic or a bigot. Is this possible?

[Anothernamechange3]

@KittenKong do you know of any training I could suggest that would ‘balance the bias’? It is concerning me that we’re only going to be getting one side of the story here. I’m very happy for this side of the story to be discussed, but not just presented as fact with no opportunity for counter arguments.

[Flingobaps]

I think we're going to see a huge backlash at some point.

If your company subjects you do mandatory training presenting gender beliefs as "fact" when your personal beliefs are contrary to this it could be discrimination or harrasment.

It's a bit like them running training to teach you Jesus loves you and insists you put God Bless in your email signature when you are not a Christian and belief a different religion, for example.

Why is a company taking sides? Why are they siding with one set of beliefs to the detriment of the other? They would never do the same on religion (unless they were a church or similar). A company should remain neutral on such issues.

I am not a lawyer or even involved with law, but my gut feel is we are heading for a trememdous backlash, employment tribunals, legal action against hospitals and trusts, prisons, schools and other service providers.

At some point the grown-ups have got to take control back. The world will look back with horror and humiliation and wonder, aghast, "what the hell were we thinking!?"

[BaronMunchausen]

Maybe raise concerns, based on recent developments and on sex-based rights, directly with management?

Say how it makes you feel?