F*ck Off DE&I

This is why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) need to go.

Recently the DE&I warriors started making a stink on social media again.

All thanks to a new report by EY, UK.

“The report highlights the importance of fostering a culture of inclusivity at all levels of UK business and ensuring that managers and leaders have the necessary understanding and support to implement inclusive policies, address poor behaviours, and promote inclusive practices within their teams.”

I have no doubt that a company benefits a lot from having an inclusive company culture.

The issue is with the recommendations shared to create an inclusive company culture (the DE&I initiative).

I will focus on one recommendation:

• Recruitment: implement targeted recruitment strategies that attract diverse candidates and, where needed, offer appropriate support to accurately assess their competences and suitability for a role.

Before I explain why this recommendation is bad. I want to share a short YouTube clip of Steve Jobs sharing his insights on consulting (EY is a consultancy for those not familiar with EY).

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Consultants. They are a bunch of very smart individuals.

The thing is; as Steve Jobs highlights in the YouTube clip above. Consultants lack firsthand experience of the impact(s) of their recommendations. The consultants are called in to implement and/or do their thing for the client, then disappear. They do not live through their recommendations and often than not, won’t see the results of their recommendations beyond what they get from customer/client feedback.

It’s like a travel agent who has not personally visited a particular country, providing travel recommendations based on their research of reading articles and speaking to others who also may and may not have been to that particular country as well.

Hopefully you get the point.

Now, let’s get back to the recommendation on recruitment.

Implement targeted recruitment strategies that attract diverse candidates and, where needed, offer appropriate support to accurately assess their competences and suitability for a role.

If we map this vague recommendation into what we see in the real world. What we see is people divided into different groups based on things like their gender, race, etc. And each one of these groups are treated slightly differently.

The most common policy I see is the “ratio policy”. In that, the company sets a target ratio the company aims to reach by a specific year.

E.g. Have a 50/50 male to female ratio in management by 2030.

Another common one is setting aside a number of “diversity" spots for people who are from a minority group.

E.g. A company will take on 10 interns this year. But 2 of those spots are set aside for people from a minority backgrounds. So those who do not come from a minority background, have to compete with everyone for 1 spot out of 8 spots.

This is great for creating a team/company composed of a “diverse” range of individuals. However, not only does this not fulfil the goal (of creating an inclusive company culture), it creates a range of issues.

Three key issues I have noticed personally, are:

• A team/company composed of a “diverse” range of individuals is not the same thing as having an inclusive company culture. Quite often, I witnessed the exact opposite. Where employees built alliances based on their backgrounds to push their personal agendas rather than work as a team/company towards the company’s mission.

• Is it fair to people who are not from a minority background to have less opportunities? I have personally been told to not waste my time applying for particular management positions at a past organisation because those positions had been set aside for female colleagues (to help the company reach its gender target ratio).

• With the focus shifted away from capabilities and values alignment, there is a significantly increased chance of hiring a candidate that is not a good fit for the role and company. i.e. a bad cultural fit.

A company’s culture is how the company’s employees act, behave, and what behaviour(s) they tolerate. It is a set of lived values shared by the employees of the company, from top to bottom.

So, what does an inclusive company culture look like? Take a look at this YouTube clip of Steve Jobs and the original Apple Mac team.

In the short YouTube clip, you do NOT hear Steve Jobs or the team mentioning anything remotely related to DE&I, such as ratios, or providing special treatments to particular groups of individuals.

What we hear Steve mention is a “self-managing” team. Focused on the company mission and having the same shared values.

Without any need of “targeted” recruitment, we see there are both male and female members on the Mac team. And everyone looks relaxed and happy, while share a bit of banter amongst themselves.

That, there is what a real inclusive company culture looks like.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion was never mentioned.

I have not seen or personally experienced a single company where diversity, equity, and inclusion was heavily trumpeted and shoved down everyone’s throats turn a toxic workplace into a healthy one.

In fact, it had the opposite effect. It became even more toxic. Like the MeToo movement, opportunists jumped on the opportunity. Amber Turd ring any bells?

Not saying we should do nothing about a toxic workplace. Just saying, DE&I is not the way to go and needs to be abolished for all the harm it’s done.

If someone is toxic, investigate and confirm they are indeed toxic, then get rid of them. Simple as that¹.

1. Yes, I’m simplifying things. There’re laws in place to prevent random firings, etc. Point is that toxic individual needs to depart the company.