An Unwanted Surprise Encounter with My Chief Diversity Officer
Continuing our discussion last week about the the increasingly intrusive nature of politics at work, we thought we'd turn to an experience I had with this told three years ago:
As Catholics, we need to be vigilant but also prudent. Most of us need jobs to pay the bills. Speaking out of turn in a workplace inculcated with this absurd corporate culture can cost you your job. Heck, in some workplaces simply holding the door open for a woman can be caste as an "offensive" act by some. I don't have any particularly brilliant strategies to employ in these environments. Being aware of the problem at least keeps us on our toes. Of course, you don't want to be walking around on pins and needles.
Frankly, if you simply behave in a manner befitting a Catholic gentleman, that's probably more than half the battle. No Catholic gentleman speaks of others in a less than charitable manner, not matter their race, gender, politics, or "sexual orientation." We've seen that there's no good reason to talk about religion or politics. Specific to us men, we don't make inappropriate comments to women, nor do we touch them inappropriately, nor leer at them.
Be a Catholic gentleman all the time and you'll likely stand in good stead at your place of employment. But next time we'll take a look at situations that may require your taking a stand, despite your best efforts to avoid unnecessary confrontations.
I had left a company and moved to a better position elsewhere. After a few years, my company hired me back, offering me an even better deal. I felt blessed and thanked God. My first day back in the old place, I had to go to "orientation." I wondered why I was going through the basic orientation, since I'd spent time at the company and not much had changed re the business model or customer base or management or anything substantive like that. But you know how big corporations are. They've got their procedures and, by gum, they're going to stick to them.
Now you need to know that the company that hired me back was not only a large, old business with a long history and tradition, but one that that sported a rather conservative image. So I expected to basically sleep through the orientation, which I kind of did for the first hour or so. Then the madness began.Even as I kind of dozed through that first hour, unfamiliar words and phrases began to break up my otherwise langorous morning.
I'd say that out of the 3 hour orientation session, about 70% of the time was spent on stuff that had something to do with "diversity." You probably know that "diversity" is one of those "code" words. Whenever I hear the word "diversity" I think "liberal." But frankly, that's the least of it.
"Diversity" - especially in the workplace - comes attached to other words. There's gender diversity, racial diversity, "sexual orientation" diversity - you know the drill. And it seems the bigger the company, the more important is this "diversity in the workplace."Surprised by the intensity of the propaganda spilling from the mouth of the erstwhile reserved human resources manager in charge of the session, I perked up and began to absorb the import of what would I suspected would be a new corporate culture in my formerly staid, conservative employer. But an even bigger surprise awaited me in the person of someone with the official title "Chief Diversity Officer."
When I heard that they had someone with that title and were probably paying them a handsome salary...he/she would be the guarantor of diversity in our workplace. Wasn't I fortunate to be working for such a company that had a Diversity Executive guaranteeing...well what exactly would they guarantee?If any of you remain unaffected by this madness, count your blessings, but don't count on your blissful state continuing. "They'll" be coming to your neighborhood next.
Well, they would guarantee that women would not be subjected to anti-women words and actions. People of every race (except white people) would not be subjected to anti-(fill in the blank) words and actions. And, of course, homosexuals would not be subjected to "anti-gay" words and actions.
Not only that, but if you read between the lines, you started to realize that if you even thought anything that was anti-diversity, never mind said anything anti-diversity or acted in any way anti-diversity, you were the lowest of the low. Of course, they hadn't figured out how to get into your brain to monitor your thoughts, but you just knew they were working on that.
As Catholics, we need to be vigilant but also prudent. Most of us need jobs to pay the bills. Speaking out of turn in a workplace inculcated with this absurd corporate culture can cost you your job. Heck, in some workplaces simply holding the door open for a woman can be caste as an "offensive" act by some. I don't have any particularly brilliant strategies to employ in these environments. Being aware of the problem at least keeps us on our toes. Of course, you don't want to be walking around on pins and needles.
Frankly, if you simply behave in a manner befitting a Catholic gentleman, that's probably more than half the battle. No Catholic gentleman speaks of others in a less than charitable manner, not matter their race, gender, politics, or "sexual orientation." We've seen that there's no good reason to talk about religion or politics. Specific to us men, we don't make inappropriate comments to women, nor do we touch them inappropriately, nor leer at them.
Be a Catholic gentleman all the time and you'll likely stand in good stead at your place of employment. But next time we'll take a look at situations that may require your taking a stand, despite your best efforts to avoid unnecessary confrontations.
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