If one of my favorite companies was accused of widespread discrimination against individuals throughout the company, of any discrimination grounds, I most definitely would no longer support them or want to work for a company like that. We live in a time where discrimination of any case is just not acceptable anymore as maybe the past had once allowed. Why would I want to backtrack on how far we’ve come from history is ridding of discrimination more and more over the years, by working for a company that continues to promote it? Working for a company that is not diverse or does not open up their company to many different people with different backgrounds would sound miserable to me. Diversity is key for a company to have growth in ideas and innovation as different walks of life give different views and new ideas from their own experiences and their own upbringing.
It is one thing for a company to make a disparate impact on their employees, but another for a company to have widespread discrimination throughout the entire company that is disparate treatment. More purposeful widespread discrimination is where I draw the line – and at companies not willing to move on from the past and create more diverse and inclusive work spaces that society promotes today.
Although, I will say that I wouldn’t mind being hired on as an HR person or consultant for such a company, ONLY IF I knew these discrimination cases were finally coming to the surface and my job being hired on was to work in ridding the discrimination within said company and creating a new equitable work environment. I would only potentially apply to work for a place where discrimination came to light if I knew I was being hired on to make a change and fix those mistakes in their business and rid of any discrimination.
One reply on “Experiences with Discrimination”
Lindsay,
I like that you talked about diversity and how much it adds to the workforce! I thought about this prompt from the point of view of discrimination being morally and legally wrong but it’s so true that beyond that, diversity in groups and especially withing a company is so important for innovation and creativity. Companies that do not facilitate this will be missing out on the huge advantages that come with mixing lots of ideas and backgrounds.
I think it would be very difficult but also incredibly rewarding to be brought into an HR team for a company coming back from a lawsuit such as this. On one hand it would be amazing to make a difference but it would also be quite a daunting task to address major issues like this company wide.