Diversity at work

[GingerBrod]

My employer is buying into the "bring your whole self to work" school of thought and has recently announced a diversity charter. People who are "diverse" can join the group and wear special lanyards (which I find insidious in itself) to help everyone know that they're part of the group. It seems to cover all the protected characteristics, so you can join in if you're female, gay, mixed race, trans, disabled etc etc.

They're taking steps to make our work environment more inclusive. This mostly includes presentations at staff meetings about specific groups and challenges they face, all the usual stuff. They're going to have a "zero tolerance policy" towards micro-aggressions. This is baffling as this is honestly the nicest place I've worked. Everyone is polite and friendly, and I've only ever seen ONE person yelling at his employee. I know there could be stuff happening behind closed doors, but it just seems to unlikely, all people who move on talk about how they will miss the friendly and supportive culture we have! The pay is shit here but the company is good.

The other thing that came up, inevitably, is pronouns in signatures to normalise the discussion around etc etc. The comms they sent out were very loose, so we haven't been ordered to do this, but there's a general pressure to conform.

I really don't want to. I don't want to bring my whole damn self to work, I don't want to tell people about private things like my mental health, ethnicity, sexuality, disability. I certainly don't want to be singled out by a fucking lanyard. I've spent my entire life making a point of not being defined by things beyond my control, including my gender, and yet here we are, being encouraged to expose SO MUCH to 1000s of people!

My plan is to be an ostrich and just not join in, but I am worried that the day may come when I'm challenged directly and I just don't want to get into a fight about it. I want to do my job, get my pay, and have a private life.

Has anyone actually got away with doing this, or have they come for you eventually?

Surely this kind of thing is not forced and only if you feel comfortable in joining in with it let them know and surely they would support you in this….I always thought equality came hand in hand with diversity….plus never feel pressurised into anything you’re uncomfortable with

I meant if you felt uncomfortable in doing it I’m new to this! Lol

[quote Ted27]@JonahofArk

He wasnt 'othered'. The simple fact was that he could not do the job he was employed to do. My son had ASD. I saw something in this young man. After many months of building trust, he decided to go after the diagnosis. No one else in the team knew until he decided to tell them.
For the first time in his life he had answers, explanations. He could hold down a job.
He has since gone to be very active in the LGBTQ+ networks. His choice.
This person is one of the most individual, flamboyant characters I have ever met. He is completely himself, and no one bats an eyelash. Because of the culture that has been created.
I am part of a project around race issues.We are all volunteers, no one tapped on our shoulders because we were black, white or Asian. There are as many white people involved as BME[/quote]
Your description of your colleague as 'individual' and 'flamboyant' actually sets my teeth on edge. Any other cliches you'd like to throw in there? I am part of the 'community' that I think you are referring to and those descriptors are incredibly patronising to me. I would struggle in your workplace if that is the sort of culture that has been created.

I don't want to be those things at work, I want to be seen to be diligent, hard-working, successful, etc etc. And I would want my colleagues to describe me in terms of the work I produce, and certainly not according to aspects of my identity that are currently politically popular.

@JonahofArk

you seem determined to find offence. I have said nothing about this person that he would not say about himself.
He has flourished in my dept. He is respected for the work he does, whilst being completely his own person, he makes no attempt to be anything other than what he is, and whether you like it not, that includes being flamboyant.
No one will force you to disclose anything, you are entitled to want to be seen in a particular way. So is he.

[quote Ted27]@JonahofArk

you seem determined to find offence. I have said nothing about this person that he would not say about himself.
He has flourished in my dept. He is respected for the work he does, whilst being completely his own person, he makes no attempt to be anything other than what he is, and whether you like it not, that includes being flamboyant.
No one will force you to disclose anything, you are entitled to want to be seen in a particular way. So is he.[/quote]
So because I disagree with your approach you've decided that I'm determined to find offence? Interesting. I'll be called aggressive next!

And if you notice, my last response to you was completely focused upon my own viewpoint and how I would react if I was in your department. Your colleague may very well be happy to be described in such terms, but I would not be, and seeing as minority groups are not just one homogeneous mass who all think the same I would hope that such differences in opinion would be respected. But I have a strong feeling that the focus is very rarely upon the feelings and dignity of employees, but rather upon PR for employers. Just look at what happens during Pride Month as an example. Rainbows everywhere being showcased by utterly exploitative companies and industries because it's currently popular to do so. And we're supposed to be grateful. Anyway I digress. I'll leave it there.

[quote Ted27]@JonahofArk

you seem determined to find offence. I have said nothing about this person that he would not say about himself.
He has flourished in my dept. He is respected for the work he does, whilst being completely his own person, he makes no attempt to be anything other than what he is, and whether you like it not, that includes being flamboyant.
No one will force you to disclose anything, you are entitled to want to be seen in a particular way. So is he.[/quote]
So because I disagree with your approach you've decided that I'm determined to find offence? Interesting. I'll be called aggressive next!

And if you notice, my last response to you was completely focused upon my own viewpoint and how I would react if I was in your department. Your colleague may very well be happy to be described in such terms, but I would not be, and seeing as minority groups are not just one homogeneous mass who all think the same I would hope that such differences in opinion would be respected. But I have a strong feeling that the focus is very rarely upon the feelings and dignity of employees, but rather upon PR for employers. Just look at what happens during Pride Month as an example. Rainbows everywhere being showcased by utterly exploitative companies and industries because it's currently popular to do so. And we're supposed to be grateful. Anyway I digress. I'll leave it there.

[quote Ted27]@JonahofArk

you seem determined to find offence. I have said nothing about this person that he would not say about himself.
He has flourished in my dept. He is respected for the work he does, whilst being completely his own person, he makes no attempt to be anything other than what he is, and whether you like it not, that includes being flamboyant.
No one will force you to disclose anything, you are entitled to want to be seen in a particular way. So is he.[/quote]
So because I disagree with your approach you've decided that I'm determined to find offence? Interesting. I'll be called aggressive next!

And if you notice, my last response to you was completely focused upon my own viewpoint and how I would react if I was in your department. Your colleague may very well be happy to be described in such terms, but I would not be, and seeing as minority groups are not just one homogeneous mass who all think the same I would hope that such differences in opinion would be respected. But I have a strong feeling that the focus is very rarely upon the feelings and dignity of employees, but rather upon PR for employers. Just look at what happens during Pride Month as an example. Rainbows everywhere being showcased by utterly exploitative companies and industries because it's currently popular to do so. And we're supposed to be grateful. Anyway I digress. I'll leave it there.

@Ted27

So because I disagree with your approach you've decided that I'm determined to find offence? Interesting. I'll be called aggressive next!

And if you notice, my last response to you was completely focused upon my own viewpoint and how I would react if I was in your department. Your colleague may very well be happy to be described in such terms, but I would not be, and seeing as minority groups are not just one homogeneous mass who all think the same I would hope that such differences in opinion would be respected. But I have a strong feeling that the focus is very rarely upon the feelings and dignity of employees, but rather upon PR for employers. Just look at what happens during Pride Month as an example. Rainbows everywhere being showcased by utterly exploitative companies and industries because it's currently popular to do so. And we're supposed to be grateful. Anyway I digress. I'll leave it there.

Apologies-no idea why that posted multiple times!

@JonahofArk

for what its worth, I agree with you about the whole rainbow thing. I think some organisations and businesses have jumped on the bandwagon.

The easy thing would have been to fail him at probabtion and sack him

Not if he turned out to be suffering from a disability and that is what most of these schemes are aimed at - self protection for employers and tick box virtue signalling.

I'm with @JonahofArk in viewing these schemes with the side eye. Its very disingenuous to say nobody has to participate when the big organisation is strongly exhorting participation. New joiners, juniors and others feel obliged to show they are part of the team, that they fit in with the organisation's claimed ethos.

It costs the organisation remarkably little as they get to virtue signal on the backs of their staff's free time (these things are always side of desk activities). Seniors sponsor the initiatives for a year or so as part of their climb up the ladder than pass them on.

I see these schemes in lots of our clients and they pretty much all follow the same pattern. Packaging basic compliant employment practice as some kind of virtue statement, some cheap and poorly vetted initiatives from lobby organisations, coloured lanyards and staff feeling obliged to be anything but their authentic selves which can have a net negative effect on actual women and minorities.

I always look to see what is the company getting out of the initiative. I'm fine with a shared benefit, I just want to know what it is.

Most of them are geared toward the type of diversity which replaces a few wealthy upper MC Borises from Eton with wealthy upper MC Rishi from Winchester.

@C8H10N4O2

the point is that we did not know he had a disability, and neither did he

the point is that we did not know he had a disability, and neither did he

Good standard employment practice should look into the causes of any performance issues without using it for virtue signalling. Partly because its cost effective, partly for self protection. It doesn't need wrapping up.

In practice I find the noise organisations make about this rarely aligns with the actual practice. How does our organisation measure outcomes of these initiatives?

You didn't comment on my objections to people being socially coerced into participation and minorities providing free time to run these initiatives - are you ok with that?

I think measuring outcomes and impact is key!

Sex is the protected characteristic and not being female and so this should mean that everyone could join the group rendering it fairly meaningless.

@C8H10N4O2

and this is exactly what happened.
The point I am clearly failing to get across is that unless my organisation took these issues very seriously and created a culture in which I could challenge policy, we could very easily have sacked him.
There was no virtue signalling involved.

I can’t comment on other organisations, but where I work everyone is involved as much or as little as they wish, no one is co-erced into anything, no one is picked on because of their declared characteristics.

Its not just the ‘minorities’ running the iniatives, in any case many of them are run as part of an individuals wider role, because they are not add ons, but a part of the normal day to day running of the organisation.
I do not have a rainbow lanyard or put my pro nouns on emails, no one has tried to force me to do anything I don’t want to do.

How do you know that I don’t belong to a minority group?

@C8H10N4O2 I agree with all of your points.

I think all of these diversity schemes put the weight of the responsibility on the shoulders of employees (and usually minority and more junior employees). Change should come from the very top, not the bottom. And in my experience, it has never been the senior managers who have done the grunt work for these schemes-which usually involve a lot of data collection, analysis etc. They just take the credit at the end.

And I can't speak for other people but in my organisation (public sector, 'inclusive' environment etc.), there isn't a single ethnic minority in a senior managerial position. So I'm supposed to add to my workload and discuss aspects of my private life in the public sphere to fit in with this new 'bring your authentic self' crap so that those in management - who have never invested in or promoted people who look like me - can continue to pat themselves on the back for creating an 'inclusive' culture?

Meanwhile their private lives remain private and I'm supposed to keep making myself vulnerable and talking about all the difficulties I continue to face in the public sphere? And this is progress?

[quote Ted27]@C8H10N4O2

and this is exactly what happened.
The point I am clearly failing to get across is that unless my organisation took these issues very seriously and created a culture in which I could challenge policy, we could very easily have sacked him.
There was no virtue signalling involved.

I can’t comment on other organisations, but where I work everyone is involved as much or as little as they wish, no one is co-erced into anything, no one is picked on because of their declared characteristics.

Its not just the ‘minorities’ running the iniatives, in any case many of them are run as part of an individuals wider role, because they are not add ons, but a part of the normal day to day running of the organisation.
I do not have a rainbow lanyard or put my pro nouns on emails, no one has tried to force me to do anything I don’t want to do.

How do you know that I don’t belong to a minority group?[/quote]
You've highlighted the issue yourself as far as I'm concerned-you needed to challenge policy in order to achieve the outcome that you did for this individual. So the policy needed to be updated because it was discriminatory. And you focused on that, which is the correct approach.

Rainbow lanyards, diversity schemes etc. aren't the way forward, they do not change the overriding culture of organisations, changes in policy do. Slapping a rainbow flag on a building or putting a diversity scheme's logo on your paperwork does not create positive change or inclusivity-actively challenging discriminatory policies and procedures does.

There’s a very very big waving flag that can be done to ensure diversity in orgs without all of this crap.
Make the ‘working’ culture inclusive and prioritise good line management.

Being a woman : yes, all very well to say that, but having inflexible work policies, sneering at men who take time off, and shitty maternity pay. Why would we stay? Haven’t even started on the inherent sexism of most schmoozing being done at after work events. Or plain sexism.

Being LGB : Nothing much here. People can’t tell from looking at you so most of your privilege stands.

Being a minority : Some people can be racist but generally the issue here is more insidious. Everyone talking about super British things that you can’t relate to. Or being judged for your accent. But this also applies to white people with very very thick accents. In MNC’s a lot of minorities are polished, international school going children of rich professionals and have no discrimination at all. Quite the opposite

Just to add - all of these issues occur because of people ‘not fitting in’. The REASON they don’t fit (whether it be race, gender or otherwise) is irrelevant.
So yes, bias training is good. An inclusive culture is good. BUT managers need to work to build an inclusive culture and to prevent people from clumping together with those just like them. To do that they need to have time to actually manage and not be so rushed off their feet with both their job duties and the duties of line management.
Nobody needs to know the specific struggle of each and every protected characteristic.
Also gender and disability require specific focus because those are due to systemic social institutions.
Gender already described above.
Disability (depending on what it is) again might require extra line management support. Again not going to happen if team is simply overloaded.

*by not knowing specific struggle of each protected charactestuc I mean there’s no need to have a quota of each and need for people to announce their identities.

If you see them as just people you won’t care which is the desired outcome. Not ‘Ella the brown lesbian etc’.

For the record I am on every protected characteristic. Apart from my race and gender (which are glaringly obvious) nobody is aware of anything else. Which is just how I like to keep it.

How do you know that I don’t belong to a minority group?

I've made no assumptions either way, nor have I written anything to suggest I have.

However its a good deflection to avoid the question on the social coercion involved in these schemes.

@CastawayQueen

Just to add - all of these issues occur because of people ‘not fitting in’. The REASON they don’t fit (whether it be race, gender or otherwise) is irrelevant. So yes, bias training is good. An inclusive culture is good. BUT managers need to work to build an inclusive culture and to prevent people from clumping together with those just like them. To do that they need to have time to actually manage and not be so rushed off their feet with both their job duties and the duties of line management. Nobody needs to know the specific struggle of each and every protected characteristic. Also gender and disability require specific focus because those are due to systemic social institutions. Gender already described above. Disability (depending on what it is) again might require extra line management support. Again not going to happen if team is simply overloaded.

Agree with all this although I'm more cautious on bias training.

To much of it is cheap tick box activities which reinforce attitudes rather than insightful or informative. Companies buy training considering of a couple of short online "training" modules or couple of lectures and don't follow up with actual change or measure the impact of any training.

@C8H10N4O2

How do you know that I don’t belong to a minority group?

I've made no assumptions either way, nor have I written anything to suggest I have.

However its a good deflection to avoid the question on the social coercion involved in these schemes.

Yep, always with the deflections. Also interesting to note that I was told in an earlier post that I seemed to be determined to take offence. It's the typical reaction when people (who are part of the exact groups that are supposed to be helped by these schemes) try to critique them.

We get the usual deflections, or get told we are easily offended, or we are being obtuse, or aggressive. And so the cycle continues.

I once spoke to my mentor about all of this and he likened these sort of people to the missionaries of yore. After all, they know what's best for us, and it's in our best interests to be quiet and accept their 'help' on their terms, regardless of whether we want it or not. And make sure we show the correct amount of gratitude to our saviours.