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I know someone (let's call him Bob) who works for a company that has had all of their employees working from home since around this time last year, and plans to keep it that way through this summer, at least. Bob has worked from home for several years, anyway, so it's all the same to him.
Bob has been with this company for several years, does a great job, and always gets high scores on his annual reviews. (For the review format, each employee is ranked on lots of different categories and sub-categories with a score of 1-5.) Bob gets mostly 5s and some 4s, consistently. Bob gets merit increases to his salary, based on these annual review scores.
The company Bob works for is unapologetically liberal-leaning, pushing out statements supporting BLM, using keywords like "diversity" and "inclusion", "social justice", etc. Bob doesn't really care. Bob is white, but doesn't think that makes him different or better than others. Bob just sees people as people. He's pretty much apolitical, and in his personal life, he doesn't get involved in the talking points on either side. Bob doesn't mind that others have different viewpoints from his own. Deep down, maybe Bob thinks it's a little weird that the company is so vocal about this stuff, but he just wants to do his job at a high level, so that's what he stays focused on.
The company recently started talking about some upcoming trainings that they want everyone to attend over the next few months. They haven't been rolled out yet, but soon. These trainings are supposed to go over diversity, inclusion, biases, and even one specifically about white privilege. Bob just rolls his eyes (in private), but fully intends to attend the trainings if they are mandatory. This part is a little annoying, and Bob has some feelings that the white privilege talk is at least borderline inappropriate, but he's not going to make a fuss or let it interfere with doing the best job he can.
Keep in mind - everyone at this company is working from home. In the day-to-day dealings with lots of different people in lots of different departments, Bob emails with people that he has never met, and has no idea what race most of them are, and has never even thought about that, because it has nothing to do with the work that needs to be done. But, there's pretty much zero opportunity for Bob or the other employees to practice or affect diversity and inclusion, given that everyone is racially anonymous, and socially distanced to the furthest degree.
So today, Bob has his annual review covering 2020. High scores down the list, as expected, until they get to a category called "diversity and inclusion". This is a new line item on the review. Bob is given a 3 out of 5 for this category and all of its sub-categories, and when he asks why, he's told that a directive was given from "higher-ups" in the company, that "everyone" should be rated with lower scores, because it's a really big focus for the company, and they want employees to acknowledge that they need to be better at it, attend the upcoming trainings, and have room to improve next year's score.
This bothers Bob in several ways. First, he's never been presented this as a goal or something he'd ever be measured on. It's brand new. Second, how was/is he supposed to affect these things when everyone is working from home? Third, how can they even assume that he (or anyone else) is not completely "woke", and that they don't already exemplify these qualities every day? They aren't around him. It doesn't come up in their daily work-related conversations or duties, and they really just have no idea.
Here's the kicker. Bob wonders if they are truly giving the lower scores on this to everyone. Are the black and other minority workers getting 3s, too? He asks, and isn't given a straight answer. Bob can't help but wonder if only all of the white employees are being scored lower on this. There's really no sensible way for him to try to find out, but either way, he's a little riled up about the whole thing.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know that this is actually happening for sure, but it seems to me that IF the company is giving out different scores on the reviews based on the employees' skin color, then wouldn't that be textbook discrimination?
If I know Bob, he'll probably just roll with it and move on.
Personally, I think it's fucked up.
TL/DNR? Cliff notes: Bob is white. Bob works for a company with liberal views. The company is rolling out mandatory trainings with topics like "white privilege". It's possible that the company is giving out lower scores to white people on their annual reviews, stating they need to improve on "diversity" and "inclusion".
Bob has been with this company for several years, does a great job, and always gets high scores on his annual reviews. (For the review format, each employee is ranked on lots of different categories and sub-categories with a score of 1-5.) Bob gets mostly 5s and some 4s, consistently. Bob gets merit increases to his salary, based on these annual review scores.
The company Bob works for is unapologetically liberal-leaning, pushing out statements supporting BLM, using keywords like "diversity" and "inclusion", "social justice", etc. Bob doesn't really care. Bob is white, but doesn't think that makes him different or better than others. Bob just sees people as people. He's pretty much apolitical, and in his personal life, he doesn't get involved in the talking points on either side. Bob doesn't mind that others have different viewpoints from his own. Deep down, maybe Bob thinks it's a little weird that the company is so vocal about this stuff, but he just wants to do his job at a high level, so that's what he stays focused on.
The company recently started talking about some upcoming trainings that they want everyone to attend over the next few months. They haven't been rolled out yet, but soon. These trainings are supposed to go over diversity, inclusion, biases, and even one specifically about white privilege. Bob just rolls his eyes (in private), but fully intends to attend the trainings if they are mandatory. This part is a little annoying, and Bob has some feelings that the white privilege talk is at least borderline inappropriate, but he's not going to make a fuss or let it interfere with doing the best job he can.
Keep in mind - everyone at this company is working from home. In the day-to-day dealings with lots of different people in lots of different departments, Bob emails with people that he has never met, and has no idea what race most of them are, and has never even thought about that, because it has nothing to do with the work that needs to be done. But, there's pretty much zero opportunity for Bob or the other employees to practice or affect diversity and inclusion, given that everyone is racially anonymous, and socially distanced to the furthest degree.
So today, Bob has his annual review covering 2020. High scores down the list, as expected, until they get to a category called "diversity and inclusion". This is a new line item on the review. Bob is given a 3 out of 5 for this category and all of its sub-categories, and when he asks why, he's told that a directive was given from "higher-ups" in the company, that "everyone" should be rated with lower scores, because it's a really big focus for the company, and they want employees to acknowledge that they need to be better at it, attend the upcoming trainings, and have room to improve next year's score.
This bothers Bob in several ways. First, he's never been presented this as a goal or something he'd ever be measured on. It's brand new. Second, how was/is he supposed to affect these things when everyone is working from home? Third, how can they even assume that he (or anyone else) is not completely "woke", and that they don't already exemplify these qualities every day? They aren't around him. It doesn't come up in their daily work-related conversations or duties, and they really just have no idea.
Here's the kicker. Bob wonders if they are truly giving the lower scores on this to everyone. Are the black and other minority workers getting 3s, too? He asks, and isn't given a straight answer. Bob can't help but wonder if only all of the white employees are being scored lower on this. There's really no sensible way for him to try to find out, but either way, he's a little riled up about the whole thing.
I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know that this is actually happening for sure, but it seems to me that IF the company is giving out different scores on the reviews based on the employees' skin color, then wouldn't that be textbook discrimination?
If I know Bob, he'll probably just roll with it and move on.
Personally, I think it's fucked up.
TL/DNR? Cliff notes: Bob is white. Bob works for a company with liberal views. The company is rolling out mandatory trainings with topics like "white privilege". It's possible that the company is giving out lower scores to white people on their annual reviews, stating they need to improve on "diversity" and "inclusion".
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