Wokery in the workplace is bad for business. Or, as the saying goes, ‘go woke, go broke.’
Emboldened by a Supreme Court decision last year that declared race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional, conservative groups have won lawsuits making similar arguments about corporations. They’re now targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups, and widening their objections to include programs focused on gender identity and sexual orientation.
“We don’t believe that people should be identified as groups and that you should right past wrongs by advantaging one group and disadvantaging another group,” said Dan Lennington, deputy counsel for the Equality Under the Law Project at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. His firm has represented dozens of clients in challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs.
Absolutely. You go to work to sell your labour. That’s it. You do not go to work to force others to endure your sexuality or gender identity. That’s a personal matter, not a professional one.
“Almost all LGBT community members have been bullied when they were young, and the concept of being bullied is something that hits us really hard. … It feels like you’re you’re letting the bullies win,”
Actually, you are the bullies here, not those kicking back, not those boycotting businesses and forcing them to realign themselves with what they are supposed to do – sell a product or service without a side salad of wokery.
While many challenges to DEI programs have been about race, activists working to change corporate policies they deride as “woke” have made a point of demanding that companies end their participation in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Most of the companies that recently announced changes to their DEI approaches did.
And this is a good thing for all the reasons mentioned. A company exists to provide a product. It does not exist to peddle sexuality or gender identity.
“A company that’s getting 100% versus a company getting 25% is an indication to our community about which companies are treating their employees more fairly and equitably,” he said.
Bullshit. A company that treats people badly won’t keep them and will waste money recruiting and training. It is in a company’s best interests to retain good staff by providing a welcoming workplace that values talent. So keep your sexuality and gender identity where it belongs – in your private life. A low score on this ridiculous system does not mean that people are being treated unfairly. That’s just invented twaddle. Well, unless you are a straight, white male, then they probably do.
It’s a slow battle, but bit by bit, these vile practices are being pushed back by consumer pressure. Long may it continue.
Although a push-back can impact on smart commercial operations causing them to change course, there’s no mechanism for anything similar to affect the vast UK public sector, which can continue promoting rampant wokery with no fear of losing revenue, jobs or gold-plated pensions. That’s the harder and much bigger one to crack.
Take the recent case in Cambridge: it strikes me that the person with the gender-fluid dog, a ridiculous idea, wanted the confrontation. There seems to be a power struggle between the “T” section and the “LGB” part for the highest place on the totem pole. Hence, lesbian women who reject transgender women as partners being classed as transphobic.