Despite several DEI programs, I noticed something amiss:
- When they hired for diversity, women hated being a ‘diversity candidate’.
- When they leveled the playing field for PWDs, they replied that they didn’t need their help; they needed respect.
- When they created affinity groups for LGBTs, people started asking questions like “who plays the man when you have sex.”
Worse, managers began ‘helping’ by giving women roles which are ‘more suited to them’; started ’empathizing’ with people who have caregiving responsibilities by asking only unmarried employees to work weekends, and the like. All this happened while employees saw few women leaders, fewer still gay leaders, and no transgenders or PWDs at their top two leadership levels.
We’ve been focusing on the wrong problems till now. We have to solve for being inclusive, without ‘othering’ anyone, where we focus on ‘We’, and not Us and Them. Yes, that’s harder for sure, but isn’t it the right thing to do?
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash