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?

Only on MN would you get white people complaining that they've been "hidden away"!

fucking hell.

Did you and your son then hold one another and weep at the cruelty of there being ABSOLUTELY NO white families on TV?

You can say what you like but I am entitled to my opinion and just because I am not in agreement with you and just because I happen not to be black is literally none of anyone else's business.

I’m a white, 50+, definitely overweight woman - not grey haired though. The only female at my level (or any level) in my department and one of a tiny number in my workplace. Although having said that the very top boss is female, so superwomen can make it!

I’d say I am less shy than when I was younger - so please stop trotting out that as a stereotype. I’m a bit of a sloppy dresser and would never be picked out as a poster girl.

Menopause didn’t really cause me any problems - I’m glad to be free of the periods. I’m slightly bamboozled by the way it has become a “thing”. Some women must suffer terribly, although I do suspect some of this campaigning has a hidden agenda of plugging HRT. BUT a lot of other mid-life crap happened to me around that time. I’m not sure if any of the diversity stuff ever talks about how the burden of dealing with elderly parents and teenage children falls unequally on women. My career did suffer because of that.

We have had all sorts of diversity training and I’m not sure I’ve seen a podgy middle-aged white woman represented! I’ve also never had to fight off an inappropriate offer of a drink from a boss - one plus point at least.

@peachgreen

What a nasty, shitty comment. Shame on you!

They are full of young attractive smartly/business casually dressed people of a range of ethnic diversity.

So no inclusion of disability then? typical.

It's how society works. It does something one way, people notice and comment about it, they see the downsides to the way things are done. Society gradually changes, another group notice this change, make observations, comment, and things change again.
Sometimes changes can be longer or shorter in coming. One thing for sure is this, at any one point, part of the population will think that things have changed too much, another part will think not enough, and the rest that it's about right.

I'd love to know what makes you think it was nasty and "shitty", @MurmuratingStarling?

@MurmuratingStarling your comment is nasty and shitty.

@ExMachinaDeus you are aware some people with disabilities are young, slim, attractive and their disability is hidden?

So my slim, young, gorgeous husband (who wears smart suits for work) is no longer disabled, wow, he is cured!

What are you on about??

Yep. I actually wrote to a website to complain because every single photo on their news page for several weeks was either a powerful (usually ugly) white man who you and I could easily identify by name, OR a stock photo of an attractive woman under 30. They were choosing young attractive women to represent ‘issue’ articles instead of mixed-sex and mixed-age. At a glance it looked like there’s a good balance of ages and the sexes on most sites, but when you look more closely middle aged women are invisible unless there is a story about a specific person. I wonder if men or women select the photos 🙄

To have a disability you need to be old and the disability needs to be obvious especially if you have a blue badge.

Oh you didn't get that memo....

If you feel 'excluded' then imagine how certain demographics of British society have felt for the past, oh I don't know, hundreds of years!

Most people have noticed the massive rise in mixed/BAME families on the TV especially advertising because many people point it out in real life. It's a bit of a patronising cliche now.

It doesn't represent the ethnic mix in the country as others have pointed out.
I don't know, but I would like to know, how many white people appear in advertising in Africa or Iran.

If the country is mainly black, then I imagine it's mainly black but I might be wrong. Certainly, we are mainly white in the UK but not mainly white in the adverts.

Don't be ridiculous.

Its not meant to represent an even proportion of demographic. Its meant to help balance the scales that have and have always lent towards white people being the default.

There are different issue on the thread. Without doubt UK adverts do not represent UK people who are only 3% black and noly 12% BAME. From the ads you would think almost every family is made up of one white and one black parent.

Separately older working women like I am - white over 50 etc are not often used in corporate brochures unless we are chairman of the board. I don't really mind too much these days as my career is very successful and the fact older women are just wiped off most marketing whereas other groups are not is a pity but I can live with it.

It's def worth raising it as a point to your comma team / GR etc about age diversity and that not defaulting to white middle aged man. However Age diversity and weight diversity would be a start I think arguing that they must a higher proportion of fat people in the video to make you feel included is probably pushing it. Weight is something which for most people is changeable, age / ethnicity / religion / sex / sexuality are not.

At my work they're obsessed with diversity and inclusion. I'm a single mother but white and middle class; didn't allow my flexible working request (entirely reasonable) - not the right type of inclusion or diversity.

I am quite shocked by the comments regarding white people feeling excluded etc. Really? Can’t you see the need for the balance to be redressed after years of people from ethnic minority backgrounds being invisible and ignored in advertising and on tv programmes?

The perceived over representation or ‘advantages’ of minority ethnic actors does not translate to equality in real life for many many people.

To feel put out by this shows what a bubble some (but definitely not all, eg Michonnes above) white people live in. And it raises concerns about how they are raising future generations.

If you don’t live in an area with many black people, surely that’s even more reason to see people from other ethnic backgrounds on tv to increase your awareness of the country in which you live?

I am very surprised by some of the views on this thread.

And I am sure an Asian or Jewish single mother would also have had their flexible working request refused - sorry that that happened to you.

How would proportional rep in ads even work? UK av for "non-White" is 14%. Where I live in the Midlands its 21%. In London its 42%. Do we get more adverts with ethnic minorities in in the Midlands than up north? Do they even more in London but less is say Surrey?

So they've allowed similar arrangements for working class colleagues? Male colleagues? Married colleagues? Non-White colleagues? Single father colleagues?