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Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

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Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#81

Post by marcosdumay »

acdha wrote: post #55
alt227 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, that said someone is the President of the United States. If he wasnt the president, these companies probably wouldnt be doing this. I still feel thats pretty relevant.

The part which is relevant is that he’s willing to break the law in unprecedented ways and has the full support of the Republican Party in doing so. Americans used to pride ourselves on the government not controlling businesses.

The US government has been dictating what company grows and what fails since WWII. Just like every other country.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#82

Post by guywithahat »

RankingMember wrote: post #5

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac. Allying to price-fix is one thing, but surely they can ally to resist culture war nonsense from making its way into their employee handbooks?

The diversity efforts were companies bowing to government "egomaniacs" as you put it. If anything a more pure merit-based hiring is more in line with what companies and employees want

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#83

Post by jalapenog »

terminalshort wrote: post #33
RankingMember wrote: post #5

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac. Allying to price-fix is one thing, but surely they can ally to resist culture war nonsense from making its way into their employee handbooks?

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#84

Post by marcosdumay »

heeton wrote: post #26
whynotminot wrote: post #12

While there’s a lot of this era that’s deeply unfortunate, this kind of question on my yearly review would be incredibly vexing to me: > What impact did your actions have in contributing to a more diverse and inclusive Microsoft? What does this even mean? How do I show I did this? If I don’t interpret the meaning of this question correctly, do I fail the test and end up some HR watchlist? If I don’t succeed at whatev…

If you remove a reaction to politics and/or management practice, this is quite an obvious question, no? Hypothetically: Substitute Microsoft for a company with “zero downtime” as one of their company values. Now imagine you were asked “What impact did your actions have in contributing to zero downtime at Hostingsoft?” That wouldn’t be a controversial question.

Imagine you are a salesperson for the hardware division of such a company. Imagine you did your work well through the entire year. How would you answer your question?

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#85

Post by mrspuratic »

delichon wrote: post #15

Due to current admin policies, failing to do this would limit Microsoft's ability to drink from the federal trough. Whatever value they put in diversity is less than they put in large contracts.

Total US Fed. Gov. contracts for 2024 was (according to gao.gov) $755B. That's a lot of drinking, never mind any anticipated AI spending boost next year.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#86

Post by terminalshort »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #71
terminalshort wrote: post #53

DEI is a blatant violation of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and any company that engages in it or any form of racial discrimination by any other sickening PR sanitized name like "affirmative action" should be aggressively prosecuted. > It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer - > (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any indiv…

This makes no sense to me. Surely DEI reinforces those 2 clauses? Without DEI, it's just white men that will be hired and generally, it'll be friends of friends with no regard to their competency. DEI is an attempt to level the playing field as otherwise, racist/sexist employers will continue to be racist and sexist.

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#87

Post by whynotminot »

ChromaticPanic wrote: post #77
whynotminot wrote: post #12

While there’s a lot of this era that’s deeply unfortunate, this kind of question on my yearly review would be incredibly vexing to me: > What impact did your actions have in contributing to a more diverse and inclusive Microsoft? What does this even mean? How do I show I did this? If I don’t interpret the meaning of this question correctly, do I fail the test and end up some HR watchlist? If I don’t succeed at whatev…

It's a very basic question. You can meet that by simply treating everyone with integrity and respect. This results in an inclusive workplace. It's not a trick question.

I feel like there’s already HR processes in place for someone who is creating a hostile workplace?

I prefer my yearly company expectations to be quantifiable with clear metrics.

And instead this is the kind of squishy question that eludes any kind of reasonable metric. And worse, its vagueness could lead to misunderstanding. And even worse, misunderstanding the question in any dimension seems like it could have actual repercussions.

Some commenters have said it’s as simple as being inclusive of dietary restrictions. Ok cool easy enough. Is that actually in a rubric?

What if I have a manager that thinks it means I should run in the annual LGBTQ+ 5K? Ok I’m willing to do that, I like to run and support those causes. But is that expectation written anywhere?

In short, I don’t think these kind of questions are ever as simple as “just don’t be a douchebag.”

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#88

Post by terminalshort »

Arodex wrote: post #70
nailer wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure why is being modden down. I was pressured to hire candidates based on their race and I’m sure the experience was not unique.

Yeah, because you know best. You never made any hiring mistake and you never have any bias whatsoever when you hire people. Who dared double-guess you, after you put all the effort of spending a few hours with each candidate?

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#89

Post by hagbard_c »

RankingMember wrote: post #5

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac. Allying to price-fix is one thing, but surely they can ally to resist culture war nonsense from making its way into their employee handbooks?

> I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac.

In those terms it is equally perplexing for them to have bowed down to a geriatric dementia-addled has-been, to a deeply corrupt DEI hire, to a dynastical potato-brained fool, to a whoring sumb*tch, ... in other words to the leader of the 'free world' known as the President of the United States of America. Just because you don't like the current one does not mean he has less authority than any of the previous ones - especially compared to the previous 'democratic' iteration who had to be told where to walk, what to say to whom at what moment and had to be kept on a leash so he did not bumble off into the shrubbery during memorials.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#90

Post by jlarocco »

RankingMember wrote: post #5

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac. Allying to price-fix is one thing, but surely they can ally to resist culture war nonsense from making its way into their employee handbooks?

It's a mistake to think corporations above a certain size care about anything other than getting more money for themselves and sharedholers.

If pushing diversity makes their goal easier then they'll do it, and if pushing diversity makes it more difficult then they'll back off of those initiatives.

The only thing they actually care about is what's best for their bottom line.

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