Mike MorrisWhat's noticeable, and telling, about That Fuckwit's attack on DEI is how hopeless the response to it is, how hard it is to find anyone saying anything more than "oh but lovely diversity!"
No wonder the goddam right is winning.
caraneaThe point about DEI is that it's *how* you hire the best. It's not a charitable endeavour, it's a tool to stop your workplaces being dominated by mediocre people from the same background who know how to game the system.
But as far I can see, nobody is even making that argument. The worst thing about attacking DEI seems to be that it's vulgar. God it's bleak
BoneHouseWasps🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺@MikeMorris This, this, this. Businesses who miss out on genius because the best person for the job can't afford the subway to get to the interview or whose disability prevents them attending your office or any one of a million other reasons for special accommodation are shooting themselves in the foot.
What anti-DEI policies are is a blatant admission that not only is the game rigged, they want to rig it even further.
George Baily@MikeMorris they will argue it IS performance / a kind of brutal fairnesss.... BUT with the unspoken sense that being good at the job is 90% about belonging to the in groups, looking like them, not making anyone important uncomfortable or even think at all, and reliably turn up able bodied to a cosplay of Mad Men work environment.
@MikeMorris in a word, are you here at work to reinforce our power. In their view DEI is a small PR based tax on that. Which if you believe it, as you say, it's hard to defend and easy to just say uwu as the Nazis descend
Cassandrich@MikeMorris We need systems to accomplish that not vulnerable to these kind of mischaracterization attacks.
Isaac Ji Kuo@dalias @MikeMorris There are no such systems. Racist sexist bigotry always lies as convenient to attack. There is nothing that is somehow unvulnerable to a complete willingness to lie about everything constantly.
d@nny disc@ mc²@isaackuo @dalias @MikeMorris i think the "systems" mentioned probably include systems of government
@MikeMorris FWIW, I make that argument, that DEI is how to hire the best.
healyn@MikeMorris yup, any corporation with a stated DEI mission has always done it in the name of greater productivity/efficiency
There are definitely DEI "training" grifters, but at this point that is irrelevant. Attacks on DEI right now are purely racist/misogynist, and when I hear anyone left of center celebrating current purges as somehow embracing a more merit-based system, I wanna pull my hair out
aes@MikeMorris Musk supposedly attacked a person working with *crop* diversity. At some level, the stupidity has be the point, to demonstrate that they're free from the constraints of logic and sanity.
MCDuncanLabDEI is also how you run your team.
I had a useful conversation with my mom some months ago. She's not republican, but she didn't understand why their had to be soo much DEI.
I explained to her that through DEI I had training really helpful training that helped me as a leader make the team better.
I shared with her some lessons from a workshop about how 'low level' sexism or racism hurts my team. Like when a woman changes her schedule to avoid someone who creeps her out ... 1/🧵
by constantly talking about how good he is in bed and touching her. She's now not around with the rest of the team and not casually hearing issues that she has the expertise to solve.
Or the black accountant doesn't feel like he can ask for help on improving his skills and doesn't grow in the position like we would like him to.
Or the non-binary person who quits to go work in a team where people won't constantly make them defend themselves.
2/🧵
All of those personal responses to 'isms' hurt the productivity of my team.
I'm better able to see those isms and stop them from hurting my team.
This made a light go off for my mom. She related a story from when she was newly divorced and really needed her programming job to keep food on the table for her three kids. There was a guy who kept asking her out and kept telling her in front of others how horny she must be being divorced and all.
3/🧵
She said her boss knew what was happening and felt terrible but didn't know what to do. It was ~1983 so the guy probably wasn't violating any rules or laws.
Mom realized that the whole scenario held her back, she was constantly focusing on avoiding the guy rather than her job, and if she didn't need the job, she would have left.
It would have been huge loss to her team if she left.
4/🧵
She went on to write software for her employer that was meant for internal use-to help track all of the various things faculty did so Chairs Deans etc could get a broad view of what was going on in departments.
The program was so good other universities wanted it and they were still using it and licensing it when she retired.
She also served on a presidential committee for database managment at one point.
5/🧵
So DEI isn't just about hiring, it's about making sure that once you've hired someone they are free to focus on their work without deflecting sexism, racism, and any other isms.
DEI helps your team be more productive.
It's a shame that so few are defending it.
🧵 /end
Matt Jordan
Glyph@MikeMorris @jaafar 6 months ago: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/112854653257645560
I sympathize *very* intensely with your feeling here.
RanaldClouston@MikeMorris a good point. I'd also add that when we hire we are usually trying to build a team, not hire 'the best individuals', and if everyone in your team has the same background that leaves you open to various blindspots, so diversity helps with that also.
Paul Armstrong@MikeMorris Some right wing figures are happy to do DEI hiring and fully understand what it is and why it's good. If Chris Christie is anything to go by, most of the issue seems to be using DEI as right wing jargon for a specifically broken implementation.
Listening to Christie talk it through with Stewart was both illuminating and frustrating.
Steff 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈@MikeMorris I've spoken about this at conferences and within board rooms. Hiring, promoting, and mentoring people with diverse backgrounds and experiences reduces risk to organization. Homogenous workforces tend towards a herd mentality in problem solving and response. Workplace diversity is necessary to respond to a complex world and issues that arise within it. Organizations which fail to embrace diversity are simply wasting talent and are ill prepared for the future.