this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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cross-posted from: https://yall.theatl.social/post/3229309

From the Atlanta Daily World:

In a surprising yet increasingly common move, Microsoft has quietly dismantled its team dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  The decision, communicated via email to the affected employees on July 1, cited “changing business needs” as the reason for the layoffs. While the exact number of employees impacted remains unclear, the team’s lead didn’t … Continued

The post Microsoft Says Bye-Bye DEI, Joins Growing List Of Corporations Dismantling Diversity Teams appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

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[–] daniyeg@lemmy.ml 191 points 4 months ago (2 children)

companies experimented with appearing more "socially conscious", waited for a bit, saw it didn't generate any extra revenue for them, then axed it to appear more profitable.

capital has gotten really dumb, and if you think any one of these really gave a shit about diversity, you might be dumber.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 53 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I think there's that and there's also the growing cancel culture of the right. They're boycotting anything and everything that even smells of equity/diversity. Repugnicans have proved that they can affect businesses and will do so with their army of right wing media viewers so it makes sense that corporations would cater to them.

The left has their grassroots movements, but there is no major media outlet that convinces others to join in on the boycotts. They might report it's happening, but they don't go all Sean Hannity with some version of "they're taking your job prospects and giving it to some undeserving lazy _____ person because they're the real racists and they hate you!"

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

This is kind of the thing.

Having DEI committees is now one of several symbols of the political ideologies of a company and its "senior leadership".

For both sides, I think a lot of people (or at least those that have the privilege of choosing where they work) do not want to work for a company that directly conflicts with their political leanings.

A far left worker who sees their employer axing their DEI programs could see that as a symbol that the company is swinging hard to the right, and may adapt more conservative practices that may effect them directly. See: Hobby Lobby trying to block their health insurance from covering birth control.

Likewise, a far right worker who sees their employer adopting a leftist program like DEI might start to get concerned that their employer may also start swinging more to the left and adopt progressive practices that might impact them directly. Like paying them a living wage, providing all the PPE they could ever need, or hiring a queer person.

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[–] Cyberjin@lemmy.world 32 points 4 months ago

Good example is doing pride month, where companies changes their profile picture and so on. They have branches around the world, and some won't do anything, like the middle east. Money talks and companies doesn't give a damn.

[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 183 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Everything a corporation does that's not outright trying to fuck you out of your time or money is 100% a scam they're trying to pull to convince you they care.

I really wish people would stop falling for it, because, well, there's never going to be real progress made unless there's the force of law behind things like DEI.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 44 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I mean the entire purpose of a dei group in a company is to make sure that the company isn't doing things that will get them fucking sued into the ground, like choosing to only hire young white males for instance.

If they want to disband this group fine, just that's going to be exhibit A in all of the lawsuits.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago (5 children)

You mean the lawsuits that will be tossed out by the totally not corrupt upstanding officials at the "Supreme" Court?

[–] Ulvain@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 months ago

By the supreme absolute and totally incorruptible court of Trumpistan?

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[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 11 points 4 months ago

An assessment test I did for a job recently was essentially just an SAT and IQ test. None of it had to do with the position but it was a quick way for them to say "no foreigners."

[–] glowie@h4x0r.host 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If they brag about DEI on marketing pages... That's all the initiative is for. Virtue signalling for sales.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I dunno. I'm a believer that there is real benefit to diverse teams and there is some evidence in support of this. Seems like a diverse team could really help a company figure out how to keep fucking the money out of you harder.

[–] TheOneCurly@lemm.ee 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Doing good work takes time to make money, execs need those quarterly bonuses right now. Much easier to do a bunch of layoffs and get that line up now.

[–] greenskye@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago

Which is ultimately the biggest reason companies suck so much worse now than they used to. Over a long enough time frame profit isn't the worst way to steer an organization. Negative actions have repercussions and companies used to avoid those.

But investors shortened the time frame so that everything and anyone is disposable. We have a handful of rich people hollowing out pretty much all companies in America and stripping them of value as fast as possible. We're destroying our economic base in a fire sale for like 9 people.

[–] namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev 12 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I dunno. I’m a believer that there is real benefit to diverse teams and there is some evidence in support of this.

You're 100% right! But good luck convincing the bean counters.

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

The company I work for is tireless about DEI and at least the CEO is personally a big believer. I think the instant he goes, though, the entire thing goes. We have hundreds of people working on it. And they have produced more backlash against DEI than real progress on it. So yeah, there are true believers out there, but the system as a whole doesn’t give a fuck, never did, and there’s never going to come a time when we all turn some corner and want more, more, more DEI staff at work. In my humble opinion the movement is dead already and will be remembered as an artifact of the last decade or so. The actual problem itself will continue to improve, generationally, just as it has done for a hundred years.

[–] wagoner@infosec.pub 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

That generational improvement is not the natural order of the universe. It's the result of individuals putting themselves in harms way to push for change. It's hard-fought legislation moving the cause forward. It's constitutional amendments. It's legal cases won against the odds. It's corporations jumping on the bandwagon not wanting to be seen to oppose respectable society.

But those who have always fought against the process are racking up wins. That generational change you've observed that looked inevitable is under severe threat. You cannot count on it happening by itself.

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[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Well yeah. The point of a corp is to make a profit. By any means necessary. They are even legally compelled to do so. They are not here to serve us. They are here to take your money. Sometimes even backing you into a corner to force you to do it.

I just got done watching Fallout and I fully believe our corporations would do the same as the ones in the series given the chance.

Edit: after some research and the person below me informing me, I was mistaken about the legal requirement.

[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 26 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Minor niggle: they're legally compelled to work in the best interests of the shareholders which is usually but not always seeking profit at all costs.

But, in general, I don't disagree, I merely was mentioning that people keep getting suckered by pretty words and meaningless promises of change and then not bothering to make it have actual legal requirements behind it.

The mistake is looking at a CEO going Trust Me Bro, and trusting them. See: frog and scorpion story.

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[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

They are not legally compelled to do so. That's a nonsense myth, even for publicly traded companies.

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[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 72 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Almost as if it was a bullshit endeavor all along, just corporate marketing. Those departments are never given the funding or staff required to enact functional change within organizations. Unionize, folks!

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 43 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Their main function was to avoid lawsuits, like the rest of HR. I feel like these companies forgot that they were all sued because they discriminated against women and non-white applicants and employees. This is just going to make it easier to prove discrimination in court.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago (4 children)

This is a reflection of them anticipating that discrimination lawsuits will no longer be a thing under a Project 2025 Trump dictatorship.

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Rather than thinking of it as a cynical farce that was a total lie, can we think of it as perhaps a genuine impulse which was not strong enough to override other business considerations, and which most companies fumbled, and which no company was willing to make material sacrifices for when it came right down to it. I genuinely think a lot of people would like to see true equity at work, but they have no idea how to bring it about, they are too outmatched by other cultural forces, and ultimately they can’t make a convincing business justification for it.

I call it a well-intentioned but doomed escapade. Not a big fat lie.

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[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 68 points 4 months ago (1 children)

DEI is like Agile. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.

The wrong way is profitable for consultants and easy for the company, so that is what gets implemented in most cases.

The right way requires actual buy-in from C-staff down and needs constant work and adjustment to the specific company. There is no one size fits all solution. More work, less money. Very few companies do this.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Eh that's the thing. The wrong way isn't even profitable. Maybe a minor bump in hiring ability and branding, but ultimately not worth the headache.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 31 points 4 months ago (4 children)

This is part of Leonard Leo's plan to re-mccarthy-ize US society and purge anyone left of fascist, same way he orchestrated the right wing take over of our courts.

[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)
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[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Companies are stopping because the orange clown supreme court ruled that racists, sexists and bigots could sue companies for not allowing them to hate.

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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Honestly I haven't heard any good news about Microsoft in like 10 years. They just keep making awful decisions.

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 30 points 4 months ago

Microsoft is usually a very big player when it comes enabling disabled people to do things they normally couldnt (e. g hands free keyboards, alternative game controllers.) VS Code is also one of the most popular code editors on the market.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

It’s like 25 for me. How to half-ass your way atop other’s work to monopolize a new economy.

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[–] radivojevic@discuss.online 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 months ago (12 children)

We should nationalize them and open source all their proprietary code.

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[–] notanaltaccount@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

In the future there will probably white people suing for racism based on the existence of dei and the courts are now so racist those lawsuits will be allowed because the same territories that fought for slave ownership during rhe civil war have political leverage via republicans

Dei is now a legal liability instead of protecting against lawsuits. Many companies that are laying off people cant justify keeping dei in that environment when they are laying off people that do work that is closely aligned with the business. Laying off a senior programmer but keeping dei seems a bit unfair and since dei could be a liability why keep it?

There was also pressure to hire more black people in business back in covid times and post-covid and companies did that, with data showing it probably impacted other races getting hired. It's risky for them to keep doing that and likely expensive. Dei was also keeping more data allowing them to get sued to more easily either way. Many employees complained about dei and that it was all for show even when the expense was there.

Its also became synonymous with woke and republicans hate the term. Conpanies only do what the prevailing political winds say so they can fit in with legal compliance enough to keep profiting. They don't care and are mostly an illusion of a logo with greedy people worshipping money behind the veneer.

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