secretfanspace | Tenth Post!

You're viewing

secretfanspace
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

hoisinsauce posting in

secretfanspace

I TAKE IT BACK, GO BACK TO FUCKING THE HOUSE!

(https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/2511.html?thread=3560655#cmt3560655)

Welcome back! Chat fandom, weird internet stuff, creative work, games, books, anything! Meme listens, and sometimes even replies!

(start a comment thread by replying to this post)

Current Mood: amused

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

dyrt

My apparently-unusual take (I thought it was a popular one, but have been told it's unusual) is that DEI hires and nepo hires are the same people. So yeah, agree they'll find some way around it, but watching that lot coming anywhere close to contemplating doing some work is still very amusing for me.

From: (Anonymous)

sd

We've been banging the drum about hiring more women for years, just so that certain men in high places can hire their unqualified wives to senior roles and get an extra 6 figures in household income. I'm hoping the culture shift has put a pin in neurodiversity outreach before that could get started in earnest, because then they'd be hiring their sons under the banner of diversity too. xD

From: (Anonymous)

dyrt

I have a slightly more charitable outlook. The end result is very similar to what you're describing but I think most actors within the system have brainwashed themselves into thinking that they're doing useful, important things. I've seen a robust burned-out scientist to DEI officer pipeline. And yeah, they usually couldn't hack science and so they jumped on another easier career path but they earnestly think they're helping....

I'm impatiently waiting for a library hold for Musa al-Gharbi's new book on this topic.

From: (Anonymous)

dyrt

Tbf I'm sure it varies from company to company; ours got overrun by total spongers when we got bought by private equity, so we now have 2 companies in one, where one does the work and the other finds new and creative ways to leech off us. They used DEI as their shield so nobody could criticise their shady appointments. They'd have used something else if it was around, but instead it was very "if u say this woman isn't qualified, ur a misogynist!!!" while installing people who knew NOTHING about the company or the industry. :') A lot of glass cliffs about. And they've already subtly reworked "DEI" into "D&I" over the last few weeks.

And yeah, I do think even in these cases, there's a bit of "well I have no idea what I'm doing in this industry, but I DO know about being a woman in this industry, so I'll make that my focus and my USP in this leadership role!" It's a trap. I'd have more sympathy but they're always looking for justifications to lay the people who actually do work off, so they can get bigger bonuses for organizing company mindfulness sessions or whatever, so meh.

From: (Anonymous)

I've seen DEI organizations both in academia and in industry. In academia it was very much the path for washed out scientists who had a shit time as a postdoc (partly due to bias, mostly due to other things) and want to improve things for the next generation while also not saying goodbye to their previous life. My contempt for them is mostly related to the latter impulse, not the former.

Incidentally universities are comically afraid of lawsuits. I've gotten an emergency "take down your webpage!!" email over a holiday break before because I ran a group for women that was named accordingly.

Within industry, the efforts I've seen come from the middle managers volunteering their own time. I'm having fun speculating whether leadership will make them shut up shop or whether they'll fly under the radar.

From: (Anonymous)

This One Guy at work has been trying to start all sorts of initiative over the years, and everyone just sort of ignores him. He is, of course, a thoroughly upper-middle class white guy, so of course he spearheaded a group to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ (none of the non-white or non-British members of staff were involved), for example. It all peters out, because nobody engages: absolute grey-rocking.

But for Holocaust Memorial Day, he sent out a basic powerpoint that wasn’t awful (although it had some slightly questionable wording), which a lot of people used as an easy way to have some brief discussions that were appropriate for the day. And they made the mistake of telling him so. So the next day, he sent about five super-eager emails with resources and ideas for conversations. The day after, three. Two days later, another.

Clearly, any interest AT ALL will lead to an explosive proliferation of activity.

From: (Anonymous)

Can you all find a way to channel his energy into something useful? Or is it likely to backfire? (Was reminded of a memoir I read by one of de Beauvoir's ex-pupils, a Jewish woman who survived by hiding in the mountains, and who was like "de B. and her rapey boyfriend did nothing to help us during the war, but it's just as well, because they were fucking useless and they'd have got us all killed if they'd got involved").

From: (Anonymous)

I fear how wildly out-of-control he would go. I don’t trust him on anything.

He was the person, about 5 years ago, who ‘spoke to a friend’ about something that a sensible member of staff was putting together about how to handle issues with teenagers with trans identities, came back and claimed everything they had previously put together (which he had agreed with) was horrifically transphobic, and set in motion a series of events which were generally quite regrettable.