Our company hired a VP of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion the same day they fired our boss!

[Headkicktoleg]

Our Director got fired today and literally in the meeting with the VP telling us he got fired we got an email from our CEO that they hired a VP of diversity, equality, and inclusion. The reason they fired our director was they wanted to "reduce overhead". We got transferred to a director up in VA 4 hours away.

Our director would meet very often with clients and is very well known as a great guy to work with and his involvement directly led to more sales. But obviously we need more diversity when literally 1/2 our team is black or other races. But I guess we need to kidnap women and turn them into IT professionals or something since we don't have a lot of women.

 

[marioh]

IT has historically not had many women, particularly on the tech side.
Tons of project managers, but i don't consider those people as true IT.

 

[all caps]

Sorry dude but <Lmaoo> it sounda like you guys are doomed
@John Mabrey

 

[Headkicktoleg]

IT has historically not had many women, particularly on the tech side.
Tons of project managers, but i don't consider those people as true IT.

yeah most of our PMs are women, for an IT company we are actually very diverse and I don't even mean just a lot of Indian people. It's just a fucking joke when they say they want to reduce overhead by firing a great guy who had over 10 years at the company at a Director level on the same fucking day they added some nonsense we don't need at a VP level. They also fired my old boss who got moved to another position, but he was awful so we don't really care he got fired.

 

[Texan6533]

Many times it’s a big PR move by companies to try to garner public favor. Not saying that’s exactly what happened in your case, but the moves seem formulaic now.

 

[blaseblah]

yeah most of our PMs are women, for an IT company we are actually very diverse and I don't even mean just a lot of Indian people. It's just a fucking joke when they say they want to reduce overhead by firing a great guy who had over 10 years at the company at a Director level on the same fucking day they added some nonsense we don't need at a VP level. They also fired my old boss who got moved to another position, but he was awful so we don't really care he got fired.

Probably just an excuse to get rid of an expensive salary.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

Probably just an excuse to get rid of an expensive salary.

they just added a much more expensive salary who adds zero value to a private company...

 

[blaseblah]

they just added a much more expensive salary who adds zero value to a private company...

A "VP of diversity" probably doesn't get paid as much as a longtime director.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

A "VP of diversity" probably doesn't get paid as much as a longtime director.

I bet you're very wrong. Apparently she has over "20 year of experience in DEI leadership", also he wasn't a longtime director he was a PM for most of his career here.

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

A "VP of diversity" probably doesn't get paid as much as a longtime director.

this is what i was thinking as well.

 

[drstrangelov]

I doubt the two things are related. A high performing senior manager in a customer facing role isn’t likely to be removed to make room for an HR position. More likely your company is belt tightening within your department generally, and this was happening regardless of new diversity initiatives.

 

[SaiWa]

I bet you're very wrong. Apparently she has over "20 year of experience in DEI leadership", also he wasn't a longtime director he was a PM for most of his career here.

Aren't you an engineer? How come you're working for an IT department/company?

 

[Headkicktoleg]

Aren't you an engineer? How come you're working for an IT department/company?

Network engineer. We sell IT equipment at under list since we get a great deal on it due to the volume we buy and then services to install and configure it. I do the work when we sell the services.

 

[TheNinja]

It's sad to say but 1 of them is probably viewed as "unnecessary overhead" and the other is viewed as "The company proving they are taking a stand for equality and justice".
Not saying that's true in this case but just look at the state of the world and the US right now. If you aren't coming out saying the right things you are going to get killed in the public eye. Hiring a VP of diversity and stuff is worth the money to the higher ups as it looks good. A small price to pay for some good PR.

 

[chickenlip]

Diversity is a sham. It makes people feel good, but it does nothing to increase productivity. People these days put too much emphasis on things that don’t really matter.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

I doubt the two things are related. A high performing senior manager in a customer facing role isn’t likely to be removed to make room for an HR position. More likely your company is belt tightening within your department generally, and this was happening regardless of new diversity initiatives.

I agree they aren't actually related, but they literally said we need to reduce overhead in the call while we get an email about adding more overhead. At least be fucking honest.

 

[JAEGERX]

so whats your next move with this diversity bullshit tanks your business

 

[SaiWa]

I agree they aren't actually related, but they literally said we need to reduce overhead in the call while we get an email about adding more overhead. At least be fucking honest.

If it's a 1 for 1 loss/gain position then its dishonest. But more than likely they fired a slew of people and picked a few additional positions they felt was needed.

 

[PaleMoonlight]

Another reason why working for someone sucks. There’s always bullshit reasons why people are let go. If you can, run your own business.

 

[drstrangelov]

I agree they aren't actually related, but they literally said we need to reduce overhead in the call while we get an email about adding more overhead. At least be fucking honest.

If your sales are down year over year, they probably are gonna shrink the company. If there are gonna be widespread layoffs, having an hr person on staff to ensure you don’t run into trouble in implementation could be a necessity. But yeah, usually cutting overhead means a net decline in staff, so for it to be one to one is a little off. I’d be worried more layoffs are coming now.