Have workplace employee networks gone too far

[Holidayheat]

I work in a large retail bank. We have a long list of employee networks we can join. Disability network, LGBTQ+ network, neurodiversity network, women’s network, staff wellbeing network etc etc. I really fail to see the point in them. I’m a nice liberal minded person. My colleagues are all nice liberal minded people. We aren’t bigoted in any way etc etc. I have a colleague who is heavily involved in the running of a network. It’s not in her job description but must take up about 50% of her time, which for an IT professional is a chunk of money for my employer. I just don’t see the point. Deciding how to best decorate the office for pride. Getting the budget right for Eid celebration event. Promoting a ‘how to do presentations for women’ event.

If we were a particularly backward thinking workplace I could see the benefit, but it’s 2025 and this is a modern workplace. no one gives two hoots as to whether someone is gay, or Jewish, or has a stutter or is in a wheelchair, they are just interested in whether someone can do their job. There is no prejudice these days in most workplaces like ours and to claim there is or worry that there is seems a little patronising. It seems a massive investment for what? Nothing.

I think if you're not one of those groups you don't completely understand the microaggressions which are faced regularly in the workplace and even if people aren't outwardly against those groups they are often ignorant of many issues they face and education for them is important. It's also important for employees in such groups to feel they have safe spaces.

Which employee group would you be a member of @Holidayheat if you had to join one? Which minority would you fall under?

I think we may work at the same place! Literally a club for every single group you can think of. Bulletin after bulletin, posters, seminars. Can’t even have a wee in peace without a poster looking down on you inviting you to the next drinks soirée to celebrate a shoe lace. It’s endless.

i work in probably a similar company with similar types of network groups and i just dont pay attention to anything that im not intrested in

Also you wouldn't necessarily know the barriers people in these groups face, it's not just microaggressions, it's also whether the policies have diversity and inclusion embedded, whether it's accessible in interviews and applications for disabled people, whether it's not just someone in a wheelchair or someone with neurodevelopmental conditions, or a chronic illness. Are there jokes around hair which are often brought up or microaggressions which you don't pick up on, networking for women in networks where it's more male dominated or making policies accessible for new mothers and parents in general. I think you're being incredibly naive if you think there's no or little discrimination in the workplace, whilst that's your experience, if you're not of those people you cannot really comment because you wouldn't be experiencing it. Even if it's not in your face doesn't mean it isn't happening and I can tell you that the majority of workplaces have a lot more to do on this and there is lots of prejudice and discrimination in many workplaces.

Look at the number of tribunals pending and recent cases. Lots of workforces are still not safe places for women, pregnant women and a whole range of protected characteristics

I also want to add think about class, have those people gotten work experience if not why (is it because they have no connections), what about the price of travelling to an internship, is the internship unpaid? I'd read this article it's about the 93% Club and how people now I'm corporate jobs but grew up working class and the barriers they face and feeling alienated in the workplace.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/19/state-school-britain-93-club-privately-educated

At my last place of work, where I was for 30 years, there seemed to be a group for everything. I joined a few and did some work for them, took everything they said on board and tried my damnedest to make sure I altered my ways of communication. Then I put on weight and had some pretty nasty comments, one person even called my something nasty in front of our director, all she did was say “I can’t believe they said that” and laughed. I was floored tbh. I raised it with the person who organised these groups and all she said was “that must be awful”. Seems like I’d done what I could to stop micro aggressions but still had to put up with blatant hideous comments myself. Pissed me right off, as you can probably tell, lol.

Anyway, that said, these groups have their place, but 50% of someone’s time is more likely her taking the piss than what is actually needed.

I have a mobility issue. I tell work. Adaptions are made. I don’t feel the need to do anything more. I certainly don’t feel the need to join a network.

That's great and I'm glad foe you, nobody will force you to join the network but if there's sessions on microaggressions, policies etc, things which many may not think of and may not know where these things come from and why they are harmful, can only be a good thing for the purposes of education. It's not just disability (for which there is plenty of discrimination in many workplaces, and barriers to promotion), the same for race, and we know how women suffer especially when in their late 20s and 30s and the motherhood tax along with many other issues in class. You cannot speak for all of your colleagues and neither can you for those in different groups, you don't know what they've experienced and if they feel more supported by such a network and feeling like they can be with people who have had similar experiences can be great for community and education of others. It's not always perfect and I'm sorry to @KawasakiBabe because these networks aren't always great and they should translate down to policies and practices within the workplace culture, which can start from this when they are done well and with those from said communities being at the helm of them.

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.

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/

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).

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.

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)

Oh look, we have a stoic.

What an arsehole comment:-

"we have a stoic" 🙄

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have no objection to the networks in theory, but the attitude to them is so very the top. We get a daily email about what xyz network did / are doing, which week of ‘visibility’ it is etc. Just have a link on the internal webpages to the network head’s email for those who want to meet in their own time and support each other but leave the rest of us to get on peacefully with work in work time.