Have workplace employee networks gone too far

My DP is autistic and finds the ND employee network at his workplace very useful. They sometimes have talks with guest speakers about particular topics to do with being ND in the workplace. He has learnt a lot and uses what he has learned as a way to manage his own difficulties whilst he is working.

If you don't need those groups then don't use them. Some people do, and get a lot out of them.

No one is forcing you to read it.

As a BAME person, I still face micro aggressions at work. The company talks the big talk about inclusivity but really they expect conformity. My multiculture network is a safe space to talk about it.

Just because you have a disability, it doesn’t qualify you to say no other minority needs their group.

The person running the session said that the expectation was to be in the office 3 days a week.
So, in response to the micro aggression comment, he wisely pointed out that surely that would still be an issue no matter how many days you come into the office.

This workplace network is responsible for censoring the views of women it disagrees with:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5390792-national-library-of-scotland-censors-the-women-who-wouldnt-wheesht?reply=146376114

Unless you are Jewish, have a stutter, or use a wheelchair, etc it's not for you to say whether it's an issue.
You'd never know.
It's like saying 'I'm not racist, so racism doesn't exist, nobody is racist.'

@WeaselsRising
You could have had the same support through any social group or club.
It is NOT a work issue.
It should not be happening on work time or money.

If you needed adaptations and your employer refused
only THEN does it become a workplace issue.

People take much too much of their personal lives into their workplaces nowadays.

My colleagues are all nice liberal minded people. We aren’t bigoted in any way etc etc

How can you possibly know this? How many people work for your large retail bank?

Nobody is forcing you to read the emails. Delete and move on.

Back in 2017 I suddenly started struggling at work. I couldn't remember what to do and was finding it really difficult to learn new things. I was worried sick I was getting dementia. Then I happened to run into a colleague who was setting up a Menopause network and after a chat with her I realised that all the things I was struggling with were caused by hormonal changes. I went to the GP, got HRT and everything started getting back to normal. This was long before Davina McCall and TV coverage of menopause.

Since then I have regularly attended the virtual meetings for that network and heard other women repeat the same story. It has been a lifesaver for so many of us, and that woman set up the network on her own through hard work after realising that so many women before us had gone through it but never told anyone. There were stats showing that a huge proportion of women leave the workforce at that age and although there will be reasons like looking after grandchildren or wanting time to yourself an awful lot of women left work because they thought they were no longer capable.

It's very easy to be flippant and decide that networks have no value just because they aren't relevant to you but there is huge value in realising that you are not the only person who feels like this.

Well, if you don't want or need them we should probably get rid of them. 🙄

Having said that if you're not exaggerating spending 50% of your work time on a network is excessive and I'm surprised that's allowed. Our networks get 5% of their core officers work time, any extra to be done in lunch breaks etc.

"microaggressions" are what exactly ?
Not being patted on the head every time you think you have been clever ?
GROW UP
Its a workplace.
You do not have to like the people you work with.
You just have to work with them.

If there is bullying / racism / misogyny / homophobia
those are against the law and should be a matter of disciplinary action
by the HR team
NOT by a self appointed staff network whose outlook will not look at the whole team dynamic in the round.

You'd be surprised what people object to and are bigoted about. Visibility is half the battle regarding the normalisation of inclusion.

If she's being given a budget and time to do this and it doesn't affect you keep quiet.

Surprised about how much time is being spent running a network but I do think those who join them tend to find them helpful. And if it makes recruitment and retention easier, well worth the time spent running them.

How were they hurting themselves? Maybe those colleagues should stop using those microaggressions, and often times companies only start taking action when you give a bigger threat, that is if they had been reporting them, which I'm assuming they were.

I totally agree. You're being paid to do a job so go to work, do your job, treat other people legally and fairly and then go home again. And if you're not treating people legally and fairly then managers should be up to dealing with you legally and fairly. Far too much time is wasted on absolute shit like that in some workplaces and half the time it's just a distraction from what you're there to actually get paid to do.

So what do you want OP? The company to ban these groups? Just because you personally haven't seen the benefit in them?

Then don't. But if there are others that do feel the need, isn’t it positive that there is one there for them? Just because everything works for you doesn't mean others dont have a different experience.

Where i work, there was a recent big discussion about hybrid working, and a number of colleagues said that they didn’t want to come into the office due to micro aggressions from white colleagues.

I mean…they were going to hurt themselves with that reach.

What an arsehole comment:-

"we have a stoic" 🙄

Oh look, we have a stoic.

Bring your work self to work.
Get on with the job you are paid to do.
Leave personal opinions and prejudices at home.

Employers must obey the law as it is actually written
(not as lobby groups would like it to be)

While I continue to be the only woman in the room, I will continue to be active in the women's networks of my employers.

I'm prepared to bet, having worked in IT for a bank and having interviewed for others, that not everyone who works for your employer will agree there's no discrimination. IME in large employers, a lot can depend departmental culture as much as company culture. How things look n paper is not always how things are in practice, in terms of opportunities for promotion etc. If you've never experienced this, count your blessings.

It is because of women's networks that I learnt I need to negotiate on salary and payrises, put myself forward more prominently for promotion. It's through those networks I gained experience of leading teams when my day job wasn't giving them to me, while I watched less competent men get opportunities. And it is through those networks I met lots of people in other areas of the business thst I simply wouldn't come across in the course of my day job.

I am a few months into a new job, where they are supporting my developmentand career progression - it's a pleasant and surprising change. It gets so tiring when you're constantly battling invisible barriers. There are so often "reasons" why a woman can't be promoted just at the moment, why they can't get that payrise or bonus - reasons which don't exist in quite the same way for men. I have no reason to think it's very different for people with different skin colour to mine, with various disabilities and do on. It definitely happens in banking, even if you don't see it.

And that’s great for you.

It’s also possibly partly a reflection of what’s been achieved by some of these groups that that’s the case for you. Yes, the time will come where some
of them have had their day - but we’re not quite there yet. Even if your employer is, those who join from elsewhere may have had a different employment or life experience to date and appreciate the benefits that the networks bring.

(They’re also a good way of building networks and morale activities that wouldn’t happen under a ‘general’ banner).

They have gone too far, but not because there is no discrimination in workplaces any more - there most certainly is.

Rather, in a lot of workplaces these networks have overreached their original purpose of mutual support and have become a kind of parallel power - an alternate source of authority and decision making within an organisation.

Thoughtful article by Helen Joyce here where she uses the example of Network Rail's LGBT+ group as a cautionary tale:

https://www.thehelenjoyce.com/joyce-activated-issue-89/

Do you not think that maybe you have such a nice liberal workplace because these groups are making it that way?

That issues are sorted as they arise because the workplace culture is attuned to caring about them rather than them being ignored and left to fester?

Many workplaces are still massively discriminatory so yours is the odd one out here rather than the norm.