Diversity in the workplace - why am I not included?

[FayCarew]

As I watch a new set of corporate videos, I realise that I am not represented in them. They are full of young attractive smartly/business casually dressed people of a range of ethnic diversity.

Yet my colleagues are generally 50+ white and grey and wear WFH clothes. As am I. We are not board level.

AIBU to feel invisible?

No. Age diversity is also important. Menopause seems to be the in thing at work currently, with stats on how women in their 40s and 50s is one of the biggest demographics in the work place, so it's bit of a surprise if they left it out, because it's everywhere at the moment.

YANBU.
After watching a series of adverts, my DS asked me the other day why aren’t there any families like ours (white) on TV.

It made me pay attention, and he is right.

Hahahahah are you serious?

Same in my organisation. Diversity means young attractive. No mention of neurodiversity, no mention that of older people who especially boring middle aged women women.

If I was represented, I'd be 'Janet in Accounts'. Probably dressed in frumpy clothes, probably 'fuller-figured' with grey hair and specs, wearing a dress that wouldn't cut the mustard on the Style & Beauty threads, and I'd be suffering brain fog and hot flushes.

Not all women over 40 are permanently brain fogged and suffering constant hot flushes

It’s a distinct improvement on the young, attractive, exclusively white people in corporate videos that there was previously. Generally with a middle aged white man as the boss.

I agree that there needs to be greater representation of all types of people, including age, disability, size, and attractiveness. But I’d prefer some diversity to none at all.

Oh Christ, I hope this isn't going to be one of those threads where white people moan about "reverse racism"

Age diversity is important and you should contact your marketing team with your concerns, OP. As a marketer it can be really hard to ensure content is representative and it's not helped by the fact that a lot of available stock imagery is of young, attractive, able-bodied people - but that's not an excuse not to try. It used to be hard to find stock imagery that wasn't all of white people, and it's only by complaining about it that things changed in that regard - ableism, ageism and sizeism are the next things to tackle, imo.

I wish we could get away from the idea that every menopausal woman is having hot sweat/brain fog or whatever. The only thing the menopause did for me was stop periods and associated migraines. Maybe we need a balance, obviously some people need support and empathy but some of us are just fine.

I think age should be represented- and that doesn't take away from how great it is that the video shows ethnic diversity- doesn't have to be either or. There are a lot of stereotypes and assumptions made about older people at work that should be addressed.

a) for a long time, white nuclear families have been the default in ads. It's changing, and so it should IMO.
b) off the top of my head, as someone who doesn't watch much live TV and so isn't exposed to many ads:

• the supermarket Mother's Day one with a white child choosing flowers for his white mother. Think the rest of the family were white too. Not sure about the supermarket staff.


• the car one, young woman drives with a cake to meet her mates outside a bar. Collides with a waiter on arriving and the cake is crushed. Think they're a mixed group, but at least a couple of white people.


• Mr Kipling something or other. Young white boy takes a Mr Kipling off someone's plate at a party/do and takes it home for his sister. White.

I kind of agree. I've noticed a trend where white men appear to be represented well and then all the other "diversity" is represented disproportionately by females. Older women are rarely shown.

However it is progress fr everything being men

Couldn't agree more, the image of women in their 40s/50s is now all about hot flushes and brain fog. It isn't a great stereotype, doesn't apply to everyone and I think it must really worry women approaching the menopause because it is all doom and gloom.

Nobody's disabled unless they're cheerful and in a lovely wheelchair.

No white families on TV anymore

🙄

Age diversity and weight diversity would be a start.

Agree that there is ethnic diversity is a good thing, but there are still stereotypes. A woman on the board will be slim and well-groomed and probably very attractive ( a Vanessa Williams or Robin Wright) not someone like me.

I'm one of those who suffered very little with the peri-menoupause and, so far, after. Basically, my periods went a bit crazy and then stopped. That's it.

Yanbu. We’re represented in supermarked adverts and that’s it.

i did actually see an employer advertising under their diversity plan recently and they were very clear that ‘we have done previous campaigns aimed at BAME and then LBGQT, this campaign is exclusively for returners to work after a long career break’. It gave me hope!!

One of my friends has been made redundant because the business had to lose someone and his boss is very woke and he was the only white middle aged man. Now her team is 100% female. So much for diversity.

Weirdly enough, I'm working through the race and diversity e-learning for my new job right now (one of the larger professional service firms).
Literally the first person you see talking is a white woman in her late 40s or early 50s, followed by two middle aged white men.
I'm about half way through and only one person who could be described as "non-white" at partner level has popped up so far. This is the sort of firm that prides itself on ethnic diversity too.
I don't think your experience is that common OP.

@Neverreturntoathread redundanices have to be done fairly otherwise the ex-employee can take the employer to a tribunal for age, or sex and race/ethnicity discrimination even if they are a white middle aged male.

I've had an employer who paid a load of us off to avoid us taking them to tribunal as they decided to illegal get cheaper workers. The group they got rid of was diverse and included a couple of white middle aged males.

It's the same in the papers come exam results time, the vast majority of the pictures are young women, slim, stunning with swishy hair, generally blonde. Very few people of colour, very few young men and heaven forbid they should use anyone who looks a bit ordinary.
We had a 'campaign' to celebrate International Women's Day for our professional organisation, virtually all the women featured were under 30, perfectly made up with long hair, very few over 50s, very few of colour and if there were they were still all stunning. And these are Health Care Professionals who are generally a fairly diverse bunch but you wouldn't have guessed that looking at the daily photos. I do realise that us old, fat birds may not want our photo plastered over the press but they could at least try.

I think there is an over representation of those from a BAME background at advert level, especially compared to the actual make up of ethnicities in this country

However this doesn’t translate to decent representation in the media generally. I read an interesting review of a recent Harlan Coben series in which the main family was a black, middle class family. There was no mention of their race, and nothing in particular happened because of their skin colour. The review said how nice and rare it was to have proper representation in this way.

it certainly doesn’t translate to the workplace either. A very good friend of mine is a black woman who is successful in her industry and workplace and she gets asked to do every single DEI video / campaign. She has said before she’d rather see other women get the opportunity through actual career progression rather than always being the “poster girl” for diversity.

if you have the same one person promoted diversity then that doesn’t really show diversity does it

Also just to add - I have been involved in some corporate video stuff and women of 50ish tend to be more shy than their younger colleagues and not want to be involved, lots of “oh no one would want to see my ugly mug” etc etc

I think women of that age suffer a bit of a confidence knock and I certainly wouldn’t push them to take part if they didn’t want to

Plenty of people with Down Syndrome represented in ads now though. Which is obv a good thing.

Yes! This is spot on. Were you asked to be included?

Have you flagged the issue to your employer? The only way people can do better is if they have all the information.

BTW I know a lot of ladies on boards who sound like you. All of who ace it!

True @CurlyBurley

we've done away with actual people in our communications and just use vaguely head shaped blobs 😂