Somebody Finally Did It

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Originally posted by Lew:
Not that the facts matter, Reason, but for the record- I grew up in Mt. Healthy, went to a roughly 50-50 white/black public school through 8th grade. St.X is mainly white Catholic to be sure, but actually I learned more there than anywhere else because a) I'm not Catholic, and b) prior to St. X, I had never been around Jewish, Moslem, or Hindu families, and during my time at X I got to know families of each very well. Sure, UC was mainly white kids, but I was a commuter and we kept to ourselves. And my law school class was the first at Chase to have more females than males.

Never lived in Lawrenceburg, and I don't like the taste of Seagram's. But actually I had a great time at Diversity training, 'cause I rented me a Mustang and I was on the company expense account and it was the holiday season at the Mall of America.

But in a case of corporate irony.....St. Paul did not have their own people put on diversity training, they outsourced it (God I hate that word; I'm referring to 'outsourcing', not 'diversity'). And during one of our segments, we were all broken into teams, and each team was given two 'diversity dimensions' (i.e. groups) and we had to go write on the flip chart a list of all the negative stereotypes of our respective groups. My group was assigned African-Americans and the handicapped. My co-worker's husband is parapalegic and it took her no time to complete the list. But we all agreed that we couldn't quite see the benefit of this particular exercise.

Well, about a year later, a group of employees sued St. Paul and that company that did the d-


oops gotta run, finish later...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks for the update on your extraordinarily diversified life *chuckle* and I'm so glad St. Xavier High School helped you dive into the real diversity of the world *chuckle* and that law school introduced you to women *chuckle, chuckle chuckle.* (And I do apologize for placing your current residence in SW Indiana, but I thought I saw you post that. Regardless, my guess is that you still live someplace lily white.)

Sarcasm aside, I'm sorry your experience with diversity training was less than perfect; however, I see nothing wrong with the exercise if it achieves a more productive workplace.

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But in a case of corporate irony.....St. Paul did not have their own people put on diversity training, they outsourced it (God I hate that word; I'm referring to 'outsourcing', not 'diversity'). And during one of our segments, we were all broken into teams, and each team was given two 'diversity dimensions' (i.e. groups) and we had to go write on the flip chart a list of all the negative stereotypes of our respective groups. My group was assigned African-Americans and the handicapped. My co-worker's husband is parapalegic and it took her no time to complete the list. But we all agreed that we couldn't quite see the benefit of this particular exercise.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I find it interesting that that the woman whose husband is the paraplegic could fill a flip chart in no time flat with regards to the group with which she was familiar. How much longer did it take to fill the flip chart for negative African American stereotypes? I'm assuming an African American was not part of your team on this exercise. And I wonder if the flip chart would have looked differently had there been one there? I also wonder if the flip chart would have been filled much more quickly had an African American been part of your team.

<font color="#FFFFAA" size="1">[ February 07, 2005 08:45 AM: Message edited by: Sarcazmo ]</font>

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Well, about a year later, a group of employees sued St. Paul and that company that did the d-

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">When you have time, I'd like to know why they sued and the result of the suit.

Reason and LanD-

in all fairness, I don't prefer anecdotal evidence but I have only two experiences with corporate diversity- St. Paul and Great American. I don't see why diversity couldn't be done right, along the terms described by Lan, but as for St. Paul, I can vouch that they did NOT do it right.

Regarding the lawsuit, since it settled out of court I do not know the specific terms. I do know St. Paul terminated its relationship with that company (if I could find my materials I could tell you the name). And I do know they had to issue a public apology (and by 'public' I mean there was an announcement on the company intranet site, which came up every time you turned on the computer).

Damn it, I gotta run again. Every time I try to post, someone needs me.....I will follow-up here momentarily....

"Diversity" training is BS.

Alright, let's see if I can go uniterrupted this time...

I was chatting with a former St.Paulie of mine with whom I stay in regular contact, and he thinks I've got it wrong. He thinks there was a class action filed on behalf of various employees AND companies (not just St. Paul) AGAINST the company that put it on. I thought it was St. Paul employees suing St. Paul and the company. I'll see if I can dig anything up on it, but I do know St. Paul quit using them, and there was this big apology issued (and I'm satisfied, some coin, though probably not too much, you know, probably not even what you would get if Mike Allen harrassed you).

Back to the flip chart.....Jenny, my co-worker whose husband was paralyzed in motorcycle accident, she got up and started listing all the negative stereotypes she and her husband had faced over the years. And yes, there were plenty, but when we discussed it later, Jenny was disturbed by the whole process. Our group also had to do black stereotypes, and since the instructor was black, this felt real comfortable. What was really interesting was he told us not to "hold back," to just let it go. Still, we tried to be tasteful as possible under the circumstances.

That said, to this day I can't figure out the point of that exercise. And I don't buy the "purge the demons" argument. And I can see how someone would want to sue (I'm not saying they should, but I could see why they would want to).

The other thing that St. Paul did that was blatant was in their overall presentation...I remember reading this newsletter about "Americans with Disabilities Day" which dates back to the 40s, but St. Paul has been honoring it since 1991 with the passage of the ADA.

They actually said that in the materials. In other words, so long as you're a member of a group who can sue under Federal law, we'll honor you. The implication is, if you're not, so be it.

I think I still have those materials somewhere (I never throw out anything) I'm curious now to see if I can dig them up.

BTW, as for Great American, they did a better job of it. Their's is basically one day (St. Paul's was 2-day when I took it), and you go into a room, watch a video that says don't say mean things to each other, then Carl III comes on and thanks Jesus as his personal saviour (I'm not kidding) and you go home after punch and cookies. Actually, Carl III doesn't make the Jesus comment during the diversity video, but he does make it during the report to the sharholders and employees. We would all draw numbers to see what minute into his speech he would utter it, the winner got some prize. He never said it at the beginning or end, he would always bury it in the middle somewhere.

An entire day or two? That seems a bit much. [img]graemlins/whatever.gif[/img] I've been here 10 years and we have had two types of diversity training. One was a female attorney giving a 1 hour presentation on "at will" employment and the legal exceptions such as race, gender, military service, etc. That sent some strong underlying messages such as "If you're not in a protected group, we can fire you for no reason whatsoever and here are some things that WILL get you fired instantly." So that was one hour and it was well done, I've used the info on this board a few times.

The other type of diversity training is watching a 1 hour video once per year at your desk. It shows several people being cut out of decisions or belittled in meetings, then has them discuss their reactions to those situations. There are systems in place to verify that you have watched the video (along with training on many other subjects).

So in 10 years, I'd say we've had about 4 hours total on that subject including zero for the first 5.

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Originally posted by gae:
"Diversity" training is BS.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Says the woman who really needs it.

I don't need diversity training.

I hate everybody equally!

I'm gonna make a great cop aren't I? [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

As long as you offer indiscriminate ass-kicking!