The Downside of Diversity

Given that diversity, equity and inclusion have become dogma in the Church of the Liberal Pieties, few people dare consider the fallout that comes from hiring people in order to fulfill racial quotas.

Now that the Supreme Court has scotched race-based admissions in American universities, the next place for questioning the practice will be workplaces. 

It ought to be obvious that the Biden administration, whose Defense Secretary made it a priority to rid the military of white supremacists, was fomenting dissension in the ranks.

One suspects that when you hire and promote corporate managers on the basis of race, you are going to have problems with office morale. How much respect will a newly appointed vice president command when he is perceived, perhaps accurately, as having been promoted to fulfill a quota?

It is rare for press accounts to consider the price of diversity hires, but the Wall Street Journal looked at the problem two days ago in an extensively researched story.

It opens thusly:

In interviews with a dozen current and former diversity and HR heads, leaders say they are hearing from employees discouraged about what they view as lost momentum in advancing people of color and underrepresented minorities after George Floyd’s murder in police custody led to greater national attention to race and inequity. Leaders say they are also facing quiet, but no less insistent, pushback from some workers, with combative questions about diversity initiatives in surveys and company town halls. 

Minority candidates think that things are moving too slowly. White candidates, passed over for promotions, think that things are moving too fast. At the very least we can observe that hiring for diversity must necessarily produce conflict, because it shows that some people are judged by different standards than others.

Besides, now that the furor over George Floyd has calmed itself, and now that most companies understand that sensitivity training is a waste of time, they are pulling back from their commitment to diversity. One wonders how much of it was a public relations ploy to begin with? 

A March survey of 1,500 C-suite executives, board members and department heads by staffing company Kelly found diversity efforts slowing or hitting a plateau. Just over a fifth of senior leaders in the survey said they were willing to host open conversations about diversity, down from 30% last year. 

And, of course, those who are given jobs they cannot do in order to promote diversity will eventually lose those jobs:

Turnover in DEI roles is high, with rising layoffs and staff changes. Nearly 30% of workers who began a diversity-related role after mid-2020 have left the field altogether, according to employment data provider Live Data Technologies.

And, of course, white male workers are becoming increasingly disgruntled as they are passed over for promotions. When such is the case, how much loyalty will these workers have to their companies? And, how much respect will they offer to those who have bypassed them for a promotion, and who are now their managers?

Leaders are taking steps to avoid alienating workers who aren’t afraid to say they think diversity practices leave them at a disadvantage. 

Jonathan McBride, a global managing partner who leads the DEI practice for recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, says the companies he works with worry about alienating some workers and say feelings of belonging are dropping among white men, as shown in internal surveys.

Naturally, no one cares about white males, but still, they form the backbone of the corporate world, exception given for Asian males:

Research on inclusive workplace practices by Kincentric, a unit of executive-search firm Spencer Stuart, shows that more than half of white men surveyed by the group felt devalued at work, or not given full credit for their contributions. Roughly 43% of ethnically diverse men reported the same. 

And, of course, there is pushback against the therapy sessions that attempt to tell workers that when diversity hires cannot do the work, it can only mean that everyone else is racist:

At a time when employees are being asked to do more with less, spending time in diversity-training workshops and courses is a hard sell, says Movell Dash, founder of Modas Personal Development, a DEI consulting firm whose clients include Burberry, The Barbican and RenaissanceRe. 

“It’s people saying, ‘Listen, we’re doing this stuff and you’re asking me to deal with these courses alongside my day job. I don’t have enough hours in the day,’ ” she says. “Then it tips over into backlash when that’s not heard.”

Ostensibly, the issue is the time wasted on courses and seminars about sensitivity and diversity. In truth, the practice itself, which applies different criteria to different groups, is a calamity. It undermines workplace cohesion and compromises cooperative enterprise.