I don't want to do "DEI Work" at work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if we all had the same conversations on gender? Stan, can you tell us about a time you didn’t treat your girlfriend/wife right? Betty, can you tell us why you cheated on your boyfriend/husband? Debbie, how did you feel when you were in the locker room and you realized the person next to you was lesbian?

Or, what if we had these conversations about religion? Or money? Or politics?

The point is, race is one issue, and EVERYONE has complex experiences and thoughts about these things they don’t want on and SHOULDN’T be on a billboard. Isn’t that what we’ve learned with social media? The people who put every thought on their site/blog, etc. is the one who gets fired, loses their job, or doesn’t get into college.

Awareness is one thing. Forcing people to share their personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences should not be done.

Of course, I can tell you mean this. Of course, if one expressed these views, it would be considered to be impugning on someone else’s experience. The purpose of these conversations is to keep the masses focused on these “issues”. Keep the plebes of society fighting amongst themselves and they’ll look to their royalty for solutions - instead of pointing to them to identify the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because having a diverse and equitable workforce IS good for the bottom line and will ultimately result in a better workplace and product for your clients.

Also and most importantly but I don't think will sway you, people deserve to work in places that are fair and equitable. And for the most place they don't. So, places are trying to change that as they should. Ultimately if it works, it's better for everyone.

I agree that having a diverse and equitable workforce is good. We have a very diverse staff, and people are treated pretty fairly overall. That's not what I'm referring to. Our company is having external facilitators come in and force us to have awkward and uncomfortable conversations with probing questions that I truly don't feel comfortable sharing with my colleagues. I don't want to share "the moment that I felt discriminated against" or "the moment I did something discriminatory to someone else" or "my family background and structure". None of these things contribute to me doing my job well.

Ah well, at least your boomer white boss isn’t trying to do DEI training himself like this guy from DoD.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/20/opm-doug-glenn-pentagon-watchdog-report/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s uncomfortable, a distraction, and unpleasant. Which is exactly how your non-white/gay/whatever colleagues may well feel about the crap that they deal with every day in the workplace.

But truly, what?? People are treated as people at my workplace. They don't deal with any crap that's different from the rest of us.

Assuming you know what other people deal with suggests that you need this training.

[Anonymous]

This DEI thing has spawned a whole industry of charlatans. There is no science behind any of this, and no evidence that it improves any outcomes or enhances integration. Instead, it draws attention to differences, wastes everyone’s time, and diverts a bunch of money to corporate parasites that could be spent on wages.

We all know it.

[Anonymous]

At the large (Fortune 100) corporation where I work, this is a huge priority and we receive constant updates from management on this.

It seems off to me to constantly discuss race, especially at work. But it is the new normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the large (Fortune 100) corporation where I work, this is a huge priority and we receive constant updates from management on this.

It seems off to me to constantly discuss race, especially at work. But it is the new normal.

PP here. I meant to say that this corporation is a very professional environment, and I believe people are always treated properly. The workforce is very diverse from top to bottom. And so this seems kind of unnecessary to constantly discuss race all of a sudden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s uncomfortable, a distraction, and unpleasant. Which is exactly how your non-white/gay/whatever colleagues may well feel about the crap that they deal with every day in the workplace.

But truly, what?? People are treated as people at my workplace. They don't deal with any crap that's different from the rest of us.

If you are white and straight (or perceived of as such) you actually, truly have no idea what your colleagues that don’t present like you deal with

This. I'm a white woman but married to a minority, which many of my colleagues don't know. It's astounding the number of casual comments I hear that are discriminatory, slurs, or just plain rude because they don't think before they speak--and that's clearly what they think or feel or whatever.

[Anonymous]

I don't mind the idea of doing DEI work at work. However, I am really, really overworked. If the workplace wants people to do DEI work at work, then they have to make some reduction in other work required. People should not be doing their regular work at home so that they can fit in DEI as well. I see this as part of a larger issue of the workplace demanding more and more of workers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because having a diverse and equitable workforce IS good for the bottom line and will ultimately result in a better workplace and product for your clients.

Also and most importantly but I don't think will sway you, people deserve to work in places that are fair and equitable. And for the most place they don't. So, places are trying to change that as they should. Ultimately if it works, it's better for everyone.

I agree that having a diverse and equitable workforce is good. We have a very diverse staff, and people are treated pretty fairly overall. That's not what I'm referring to. Our company is having external facilitators come in and force us to have awkward and uncomfortable conversations with probing questions that I truly don't feel comfortable sharing with my colleagues. I don't want to share "the moment that I felt discriminated against" or "the moment I did something discriminatory to someone else" or "my family background and structure". None of these things contribute to me doing my job well.

NP. I 100% agree with you, on all points. I was interviewing recently and thought it went pretty well. Then the last question: "Who is the most inclusive person you know, and why?" Nothing at all to do with the job or my experience. I was completely floored and it showed. I made up some BS answer but I knew that was it. Because of some absurd, virtue-signaling question, I did not get a job I was fully qualified for.

DEI is a farce and I look forward to the day more people realize this.

Well they thought answering that question well was part of being qualified. So NO, you were not fully qualified.

Yeah, but it was a dumbass clown question. PP dodged a bullet.

It was a softball question. Any clown should have been able to answer it. Who is against managers being inclusive? That's not a race thing per se. I could be introvert/extrovert, accessibility issues, virtual/in person, so many things.

It was a softball question (NP). I mentally answered it as I was reading it. But we don't know what kind of a response they were looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s uncomfortable, a distraction, and unpleasant. Which is exactly how your non-white/gay/whatever colleagues may well feel about the crap that they deal with every day in the workplace.

But truly, what?? People are treated as people at my workplace. They don't deal with any crap that's different from the rest of us.

If you are white and straight (or perceived of as such) you actually, truly have no idea what your colleagues that don’t present like you deal with

This. I'm a white woman but married to a minority, which many of my colleagues don't know. It's astounding the number of casual comments I hear that are discriminatory, slurs, or just plain rude because they don't think before they speak--and that's clearly what they think or feel or whatever.

Then why not have training that focuses more on real-life examples of these types of comments? Explain what crap your non-white/gay/whatever colleagues are dealing with in the workplace. For training to be worthwhile, there must be concrete examples and solutions that people can use, stated in language that everyone understands (not using terms that multiple groups define or understand differently).

What is the solution if punctuality and other professionalism standards privilege whiteness? Should everyone in the office come and go as they please? How do you develop or reconfigure personal and workplace standards to be more inclusive yet still meet the expectations and demands of clients or other stakeholders? My issue with much of this training and the scholarship is that simply pointing out problems without offering solutions has little impact.

[Anonymous]

if timelines = white supremacy, then anyone wearing a watch is practically a Nazi. Let's all ditch our work schedules, class schedules and any expectation of meeting your colleague, doctor or hairstylist at a specific time. Only then can we be a racially harmonious society.

Is Stanford going to lead the way on this?

[Anonymous]

*timeliness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the large (Fortune 100) corporation where I work, this is a huge priority and we receive constant updates from management on this.

It seems off to me to constantly discuss race, especially at work. But it is the new normal.

PP here. I meant to say that this corporation is a very professional environment, and I believe people are always treated properly. The workforce is very diverse from top to bottom. And so this seems kind of unnecessary to constantly discuss race all of a sudden.

It isn’t all of a sudden. Its necessity was catalyzed after George Floyd was murdered by racist cops in Minnesota and the BLM movement in exploded.

[Anonymous]

Men in the 90s rolled their eyes at "sexual misconduct" training as well. Yes after decades, some of it has seeped in. Some.

If it makes you uncomfortable, THAT'S THE POINT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Men in the 90s rolled their eyes at "sexual misconduct" training as well. Yes after decades, some of it has seeped in. Some.

If it makes you uncomfortable, THAT'S THE POINT.

And that’s also the point of embedding equity discussions in K-12. We ARE trying to make your white children uncomfortable. That’s how they learn.