AIBU not to share personal diversity data at work?

[Itsdeffoabat]

My work has repeatedly asked me to update my diversity data on our work database. They say they need to know employee demographics to ensure they are providing an equitable, diverse and inclusive working environment.

I am sceptical of DEI in the workplace so have chosen not to disclose any of my protected characteristics. I have just left it blank instead of answering “prefer not to say”. I have had a few emails asking me to either populate the answers or say “prefer not to say”.

Am I unreasonable to just continue to leave it blank. I do not want to give an answer and am suspicious that “prefer not to say” has a different meaning attached?

If you leave it blank the assumptions are either that you've not been asked or that you can't be bothered to answer.
'Prefer not to say' is the only way to record that you, well, prefer not to answer.

It's a bit like a general election, many people don't vote because they don't like the options but at the end of the day not turning up is always labelled as 'voter apathy' and that you don't care.

I would tick 'prefer not to say' but if anyone asks me in person I always ask "does it make any difference to how I'm treated?"

When the answer is invariably "no" I respond with "well it's irrelevant then, isn't it?".

From having worked for the DEI committee at my company, these statistics are used at a high level (ie not team level, or even department level if it would make it identifiable).
The goal was to produce statistics that would highlight anomalies and understand if there is a reasonable explanation or if something should be done to correct it.
For ex:

• staff retention is good except for x age group
• ethnic diversity is at a similar level in all offices / departments except one where it is much lower
• stats on pay for men vs women (believe it or not, on one occasion all the women in a specific function ended up with a pay raise as there was literally no fair reason for the discrepancy)
• percentage of people being promoted vs representation in the company of the different groups

So feel free to answer that you don’t want to say - but just not answering or giving wrong answer is just silly, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

Yes that’s true 😆

But when it comes to "race" for example. What is "honest" ? And - much more critically - who gets to decide ?

I don’t complete it for two reasons:

1. I don’t want any lazy stereotyping allocated to me based on any of my characteristics.

2. I don’t want my company to be high 5-ing itself for employing anyone with a certain identity. Just recruit the best people for the job and be done with it. That’s real inclusion.

Yes thank you, I think I feel similar.

I think you are treating this with more suspicion than required. Workplace responses are often anonymised for analysis. It is not a criteria for promotion as, in the UK, promotion or hiring on race alone is illegal.

A prefer not to say response may indicate that there is a culture of a lack of trust, the reasons for which maybe multi layered. It may spur an organisation to address its trust issues with its leadership and come up with a plan that will improve behaviours and transparency. They may choose to look deeper at any data trends and challenge, reflectively, if there is any objective justification for any bias that is impacting decisions. So while this data is really important, it's a choice.

Your choice not to provide any data means the concerns around fairness continue to be swept under the carpet. So rather than supporting meritocracy, you are doing the exact opposite. You are contributing to a culture of silence that prevents women and those from diverse economic backgrounds working in environments where fair, accessible and transparent systems are in place. The sad thing is that the greatest beneficiary of inclusion is meritocracy as inclusive systems enable ALL colleagues to know their performance and potential will be recognised and judged on merit alone.

You're right to remain silent on inclusion should be respected. Your rationale for doing so is flawed and runs counter to all evidence on the extent that meritocracy you speak of exists. But without the checks and balances that responses to data provide, we will never know.

If you refuse to put anything they will judge you far more harshly than if you simply tick prefer not to say.
If you don’t want to work for a company with DEI protocols, change job. You won’t escape it by refusing to co-operate.

Isn’t it funny though how the best person for the job is so often a white, middle class man.

This. I just rolled my eyes reading that ridiculous post.

I understand the suspicion - in the past I've been asked to include demographic information on employee satisfaction surveys, and the information combined could often easily identify someone.

However, I've also worked in HR type roles and been involved in collecting and using this kind of data. It is useful for evidencing whether your employees are representative, fairness, that sort of thing. It's unlikely that anyoneis looking at the data for individuals. They are almost certainly not judging anyone for 'preferring not to say'.

What possible alternative meaning is there to “prefer not to say”?

Honestly don’t know how some people actually survive a single day getting bees in their bonnet about stuff like this!

Unclench!!

It’ll be a process which reminds anybody who’s is blank that is still blank. So either you put up with being reminded or you put “prefer not to say“. The latter will stop them emailing you and also doesn’t reveal your personal information, which is absolutely fine. You don’t have to share it.

So rather than supporting meritocracy, you are doing the exact opposite.

Alternatively you are choosing to actively partake in a mechanism designed to ensure any variation between individuals in a group can be weaponised as a "minority" in a philosophy that seeks to create more categories, not fewer - until we all reach the single origin point of "Human."

An assertion that is confirmed when you realise there is nobody checking the "accuracy" of the so called "data" that is returned. and just look at the bun fight when somebody woke up one day, checked, and discovered that even "sex" was a matter of someones personal choice. It never should have been of course.

Personally I prefer to view life through a lens not a prism.

Actually, I have been questioned on my nationality and heritage after filling in a form at DC’s school. They did suggest that my answer was “wrong”. Obviously that shouldn’t have happened, but it led me to carry out a little research, and it appears (data from some years ago) that the the people who are most against giving data on this are Jewish. The reasons for this are even more obvious now than they were then, and maybe asking questions like that should be reconsidered in light of the racism that some ethnic groups have faced.
“ Prefer not to” could be viewed as a stance, thus inviting more assumptions and for that reason I can see why people wouldn’t want to pick that option. If you think you are likely to be discriminated against, you want to keep under the radar, not flag yourself up.

Thank you all, some interesting responses. Those saying “just select prefer not to say” I do get your point. It’s made me think about why I really don’t want to as on the surface it’s not really a big deal. I think I just don’t agree with collecting personal data at all and this is my small way of protesting that. I am sure it doesn’t make any impact but it makes me feel better.

I really like my workplace. It’s a great place to work and ideal for working parents. I feel very grateful for that and don’t need anything more from a work place.

We have a lot of additional stuff at work like menopause awareness sessions, LGBT champions, women’s network. I find all stuff ott and invasive. I don’t need my work to anything more than a good employer. I prefer to meet other needs outside of work.