⬜ A Uniform Failure In Diversity

In 2020, banking giant Wells Fargo began an informal policy that required positions of $100K or more to interview at least one woman or person of color (POC). Well, those efforts have fallen mostly flat, employees of the company now say. Meanwhile, Netflix, which is cutting staff, is being criticized for disproportionately hitting those “who aimed to elevate diverse content and talent,” says the Los Angeles Times.

• According to The Hustle, Wells Fargo has allegedly been holding "bogus interviews" with women/POC for roles that have already been filled in order to satisfy diversity efforts.

• At Netflix, the Times adds that many of the company's diversity hires were contractors, and thus have been the first to get cut.

The Contractor Illusion

A report by the TechEquity Collaborative states that “contract and temp workers are more likely to be Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, women, and nonbinary people than those hired in the direct workforce,” calling the phenomenon "occupational segregation". This means that a company's diversity efforts may be mostly in contractors and not W2 staff and that these employees tend to face layoffs first when a company tightens its belt. In other words, white, male employees benefit from being laid off last in this order.

The Verdict

While it's not exactly a surprise to learn that some major corporations treat their diversity pledges as superficial, it's also a worrisome trend that layoffs disproportionately affect women and POC.