Training in the context of a diversity drive outside usual business hours - am I missing something

[MrsFogi]

I am somewhat that my office is doing a big drive on diversity and increasing the pipeline of talent. To this end they are running lots of training (not on diversity but soft skills training) and discussion groups (on gender diversity). But all of them have been timetabled from 8-9am (our normal hours are from 9). Am I being oversensitive or does this seem to be likely to exclude whoever is responsible for childcare in the morning (more likely to be women) and doesn't putting this sort of thing outside business hours indicate that it is not seen as being important enough to timetable during business hours? I'd be interested in thoughts before I put my head above the parapet and raise the points.

That would really annoy me. I definitely think you should raise it and suggest that all work training takes place within standard working hours.

Yes, I'd definitely point it out as a massive own goal if the training is meant to be "diversity" and especially gender (do they mean a twee euphemism for sex, or do they mean the Tumblr meaning of gender identity - if the latter, I'd be dancing a happy jig at having a cast-iron excuse not to attend).

But if it is meant to be dealing with sexual equality, it is definitely worth pointing out that anyone doing school drop-offs (predominantly women, as you say) won't be able to make it.

Yes, our women's group at work never has breakfast meetings for precisely that reason.

We have various diversity initiatives, and they take place in business hours,. Usually, they're also recorded, because we're a global company and business hours in Frankfurt or London aren't the same as east coast USA or Colorado or Sydney or wherever. Lots of webinars get scheduled at least twice for that reason, so there's an EU/USA overlap and an AsiaPac/USA overlap.

I would point it out to them, but then I seem to have a reputation for asking saw ward questions, so doing as I do may not always be best. (The last time I asked one, someone said after, "that was brave! " and I hadn't thought it brave at all, I was just interested to know, and they totally avoided answering the actual question anyway.)

If they're still getting used to the idea of diversity, it may help to point out that while it is mostly women who do the same hooligans run (er, that's what my phone has auto-corrected school run to...) point out fathers do, too, and they can support their wives by doing it more often in many cases.

I hate breakfast meetings. Completely unnecessary and disruptive. Making everyone sacrifice their own time for training for no good reason gives a poor message to potential attendees. I too would wonder what the 'gender diversity discussions were all about' (and who is supposed to be having the discussions?).