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Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

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Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#491

Post by brap »

random_i wrote: post #353

I previously assembled & managed a team of engineers at Microsoft. Out of 10 employees on my team, I had: - male and female (80/20 split) - black, white, asian, latino - engineers in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s - east coast, west coast - ivy league, college and high-school graduates That level of diversity was very rare at Microsoft, and even rarer at other tech companies. It took a *lot* of work; with less effort I wou…

>It took a lot of work

A lot of work rejecting talented candidates of the wrong color?

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#492

Post by fourside »

gusfoo wrote: post #227

> Read the memo from Meta in full: That did not seem at all controversial to me. It seems quite sensible, but it alludes to some silly practices that are now being retired. For example "This effort focused on sourcing from diverse-owned businesses" is, in my opinion at least, a very very silly thing to do. I am much, much, more interested in high quality, affordable, stable products when I buy things. Not the skin co…

> may disadvantage my business by making my own products (build from their components) worse

One of the biggest wins for the anti-DEI crowd was convincing people that embracing DEI implicitly meant getting something of lesser quality or value.

Here, you assume that focusing on businesses owned by people of color necessitates lowering your standards of your suppliers below acceptable levels.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#493

Post by fiffled »

chimen wrote: post #420
eapressoandcats wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

> How about your trans people beating up women in boxing

You mean Imane Khelif? If so, you've been misinformed.

Khelif does not identify as trans, and described such accusations as "a big shame for my family, for the honor of my family, for the honor of Algeria, for the women of Algeria and especially the Arab world."

The evidence indicates that Khelif is a male with a disorder of sex development - not a male with a transgender identity.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#494

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

gusfoo wrote: post #227

> Read the memo from Meta in full: That did not seem at all controversial to me. It seems quite sensible, but it alludes to some silly practices that are now being retired. For example "This effort focused on sourcing from diverse-owned businesses" is, in my opinion at least, a very very silly thing to do. I am much, much, more interested in high quality, affordable, stable products when I buy things. Not the skin co…

A few years back, suggesting these "sensible" changes would have you seen shunned and/or fired in many companies.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#495

Post by mcintyre1994 »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #245
romellem wrote: post #112

Contrast Meta's stance with Costco's, when [Costco responded][1] to a shareholder that proposed Costco prepare a report on "the risks of the Company maintaining its current DEI roles, policies and goals." Our success at Costco Wholesale has been built on service to our critical stakeholders: employees, members, and suppliers. Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics: For our employ…

Costco employees were never called to testify at congressional hearings. They do not need to worry about pr and political pushback like meta does.

Trump hasn't specifically threatened to put their CEO in prison for life either, AFAIK.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#496

Post by adrr »

mmooss wrote: post #125
deadbabe wrote: post #100

Diversity should never be a goal or initiative. It’s a value. You wake up every day and practice diverse hiring practices. The moment you put a tangible target to hit, is when you gamify diversity into something bad.

How do you make it happen? Relying on people to "wake up every day and practice diverse hiring practices" wasn't working.

Is this anecdotal or do you have source where hiring doesn’t match the pool of qualified candidates(Eg: recent CS degrees graduates)?

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#497

Post by whimsicalism »

iforgot22 wrote: post #384
firefoxd wrote: post #184

I wrote about my experience working as a software developer and being black in the industry and I was lucky to have it published on BBC [1]. What immediately followed, every large company reached out to have me work as a consultant for their diversity program. I found it fascinating that they had a team of DEI experts in place already. Like what makes one an expert? In addition to my job, I spent nights developing pr…

Is this because truly doing race-based hiring has been illegal for a long time? I've noticed they'll target certain demographics for interviews and other opportunities, but identity can't be a factor in the interview itself. It's a fine line.

maybe race-based hiring has been illegal and you might be able to win a civil case, but the DOJ certainly wasn't going after companies for not hiring enough white people or men.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#499

Post by groby_b »

bko wrote: post #246
firefoxd wrote: post #184

I wrote about my experience working as a software developer and being black in the industry and I was lucky to have it published on BBC [1]. What immediately followed, every large company reached out to have me work as a consultant for their diversity program. I found it fascinating that they had a team of DEI experts in place already. Like what makes one an expert? In addition to my job, I spent nights developing pr…

A lot of people say DEI programs were purely performative and just for political points. But these policies did change the corporate landscape and affect hiring decisions. Of 323,092 new jobs added in 2021 by S&P 100 companies, 302,570 (94%) went to people of color This data came from workforce demographic reports submitted to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by 88 S&P 100 companies Hispanic individua…

I recommend reading the WaPo article that goes along with it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/28/minoritie...

Bloomberg's choosing to misrepresent the data here - this is not about jobs added, it's about changes in the employment composition.

Simple example: Company X has 950 white and 50 POC employes. 10% leave over the year (95 white, 5 POC). They hire 200 more at an even split (50% white, 50% POC). They now have 1100 people, 955 white, 145 POC. So they've gained net 100 folks - and the net change is +5 white, +95 POC. Voila, 95% people of color hired.

It's still a pretty stunning change with a large ramp up in hiring of POC, but it's much less an indicator of preferential hiring than the Bloomberg framing makes it sound.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#500

Post by dang »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #235

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments? We've had to ask you this a bunch of times already. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

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