How do you teach "sensitivity" in the workplace?

February 19, 2006 1:07 PM

I would like some input on the best way to teach "sensitivity" in the workplace

The place where I work has a (not so) subtle air of discrimination and we are trying to change that. However, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. I think that having some sort of workshop that both addresses some of the common issues that come up in our work environment and gets people talking about situations that make them uncomfortable would be fabulous. However, I've been told by a couple people that discussions just get people confused and it's better to have someone come in and simply state the policies on harrasment to scare people into submission.

Typical situations that need to be addressed are:
- racist jokes
- pornography in offices/meetings
- ass grabbing
- comments about people being hired to "fill a quota"

I am interested in getting input from you as to workshops you've attended to try and get ride of discrimination (gender/sexual orientation/race/etc). I'd love to know what works, what doesn't work, and how you think this problem is best addressed.

posted by kechi to work & money (15 comments total)

My company does "diversity training"... one of the things they do in this training is show pictures of a whole bunch of different people, and rate them on a scale from 1-5 (5 being basically "I'd very much like to meet him/her", and 1 being "he/she repulses me"..

After we're done doing the ratings, we're told who they really are - professions, etc etc... So basically, the whole room of prejudiced yahoos sees "oh wow, that guy was a doctor?"...

It sounds like sort of a juvenile exercise, but some people in the room really seemed to get something from it.

Honestly, it just needs to be reinforced repeatedly as company policy, and someone may even need to get let go for it for the message to really sink in that that sort of thing will not be allowed there...
posted by twiggy at 1:34 PM on February 19, 2006

There are lots and lots of consultants who will come in and do this for a huge variety of prices. You may want to consider finding a law firm who specializes, or has a department who specializes in, employment law. They'll be able to customize a program for you, including appropriate policies, and probably make it one you can continue to provide for new employees. This kind of training can be really important if a lawsuit arises.

Consultants can work with you over time to truly attempt to change the culture of the workplace, if that's what you're looking for.

It's *really important* that you do something proactive if there is an "air of discrimination" so kudos for looking to do it.

I can't tell where you are from your profile, but if you email me, I might be able to recommend someone in either group in your area.
posted by dpx.mfx at 1:40 PM on February 19, 2006

At one job, we were given "Ethics Training" that included exercises in which were given situations in which we were given the parts of the participants in various scenarios, and then asked how you felt that person felt, and what could done to address the situation. Typically Ethics Classes were taught be someone in HR, but our Sexual Harrasment class was taught by a local training coordinator.

None of these really made an impression on most people in the office because most of the people behave professionally without such training.

One thing that did impress me was when a short-timer said "Fuck you bitch" to a 21 year old female new hire, who promptly called one of the managers. The short-timer was told not to bother with coming any more, got his built-up personal time taken away, and told he would never be welcome back to work for this company. Now that was impressive.
posted by Fat Guy at 1:48 PM on February 19, 2006

There are a million people whose job it is to provide diversity/cultural sensitivity trainings to companies, and I beg you to hire one of them rather than trying to do something on your own. I guarantee the situation will worsen if there is not someone who knows very well what they're doing in charge of it.

They won't be cheap, but they wil be well worth your money.
posted by tristeza at 2:04 PM on February 19, 2006

The company I work for put every employee through mandatory "sensitivity training" which included a break-down of the provincial laws in regards to ethtical treatment in the workforce, as well as a recent case-study of a sexual harrassment case within our industry.

We were also treated to one of those cheezy training videos with bad music and worse acting in which a diverse group of employees learn to respect each other and they are overcome with feelings of love and understanding. This evoked giggles more than anything else, and I'd avoid such cheese unless you're trying to fill a time quota.
posted by Robot Johnny at 2:09 PM on February 19, 2006

You've got to crawl before you can walk. For the workplace you're talking about, if it is as rife with unlawful conduct as you say, it probably really is "better to have someone come in and simply state the policies on harrasment to scare people into submission." If that someone is a tag team of your outside counsel and your CEO or divisional chief (i.e., not some low-power HR functionary), so much the better.

Saying nothing about how effective it may be, typical sensitivity training presumes a certain degree of pre-existing respect for diversity or pre-existing paranoia regarding blatant misconduct. Someone who happily grabs asses isn't going to be seeing the light when he's shown a video about the sad lot of women in the workplace.

Indeed, until you get the violations under control, the EEOC and your neighborhood friendly civil jury might regard bringing in your typical diversity cosultant as actually aggravating the liability, since it shows management awareness of problem, but a complete lack of seriousness in solving it.
posted by MattD at 3:50 PM on February 19, 2006

Probably overkill, but classes run by this woman are simultaneously hypnotic and gut-wrenching, and that's just from watching a tape.
posted by Ritchie at 4:14 PM on February 19, 2006

I personally have never been to any sort of "sensitivity training" or "diversity workshop" that wasn't a complete waste of company time.
If you have people that don't understand proper workplace behavior, send out a reminder of the company policies on these issues, send out another reminder to reinforce it, and then fire the worst offenders.
You aren't going to change people's prejudicial or juvenile attitudes with an hour long seminar in the lunchroom.

At best, you'll irritate those workers you have who do manage a professional attitude at work. At worst, you'll create an even more hostile workplace as now those perceived as "different" will now be viewed as "troublemakers".
Also, you don't mention if you are management or not, but be aware that management requiring time-wasting seminars is bad enough, but a co-worker causing it is much worse.
posted by madajb at 5:20 PM on February 19, 2006

In my experience, the only way to effect such a major culture change is to hold the organization's leadership personally accountable for making it happen. That means being willing to fire bigoted employees who can't keep the behavior out of the workplace. It also means being willing to fire managers who won't fire offending employees. It makes sense to pursue diversity training because it's a necessary step you must take before you can explore more drastic measures. The people who actually need it won't take it seriously, though. They will only change their behavior when there is a direct personal cost to continuing it.

Even if you remove the overt discrimination, you'll still have a major problem with implicit discrimination - "old boy's club", exclusion of women and minorities from important decisions and workplace networks, etc. To address this in the long term, you need to recruit and retain people who won't perpetrate this culture, and you need to build an employee base that is inclusive and accepting of others. It's not enough just to hire openminded people, either - you need to make sure that they are given the tools they need to succeed as your organization transforms itself. I've seen so many examples of orgs that thought they could just throw a bunch of non-type-A-alpha-WASP-males into the mix and solve their diversity problems overnight. Invariably, all of those people left within a year for better places because nothing was done to prevent the ostracized power base from ostracizing them.

Kudos for being willing to tackle this problem. In the long run it will be very good for your company, but it can be a long road to change an organization's culture. Leading Change has some interesting insights on how to succesfully effect a culture change in an organization (and on how long you should expect the process to take before the change is permanent).
posted by rhiannon at 6:12 PM on February 19, 2006

First, I would stop calling it "sensitivity." Call it basic respect for coworkers, or more simply, "not being an asshole."

No one is being required to be "sensitive" to other people's needs and feelings. They just need to follow company policy, which is that sexism, racism, etc. are not tolerated.

Also, when you talk about sexism and racism in the workplace, focus on the behavior you want to stop, not on the feelings of the people targeted by the behaviors -- that's patronizing. Talking about how "we don't want to offend anyone" makes it about oversensitive, uppity minorities and not about the antisocial behavior that's really going on.

A proper diversity training, which goes deeper into the dynamics that make subtle workplace discrimination an systematic and important issue, is better suited for a workplace where people basically have their shit together already.

If there's ass-grabbing, porn on people's walls and racist jokes, what these folks need first is not a discussion session or even a class -- they need to be slapped on the hands, sat down and told the rules, and seriously disciplined if they break them.

I think a training needs to focus on what is objectively not acceptable, and make that as clear as possible.
posted by crabintheocean at 6:43 PM on February 19, 2006

On posting -- what MattD said, and that'll teach me to post on threads I opened six hours ago without hitting reload.
posted by crabintheocean at 6:45 PM on February 19, 2006

kechi, I beg you not to "roll your own" diversity training. If you have people teaching your employees who are not trained in the law, you risk bad advice and down the road a potential lawsuit.

Look to the models. Denny's had several instances of bad publicity because of poor treatment of minorities (including people on Pres. Clinton's Secret Service security detail!) that led them to a complete corporate transformation; they are now the standard to which other companies aspire (although some people still remember the discrimination and that will take a long time to go away). It wasn't just a cosmetic change, it was a top-to-bottom rethink of the entire corporate approach including how to communicate and implement policies at the franchisee level.

Prior to Denny's many companies did half-assed things that perpetuated the perception that this was "political correctness". There was an early episode of The Office for the US that was broadcast online (I can't find it now) that dealt with such a dunderheaded approach.

From a legal standpoint it has been proven that what is necessary to protect the company is, first of all, a clear and firm policy against discrimination and unacceptable behavior, and second of all, enforcement. As long as those two items are met the company will be in a very strong position should anyone bring a lawsuit (and that's unfortunate, in its own way, because it frequently offers little redress for those who faced years of discrimination before the policies were effected).

- racist jokes
- pornography in offices/meetings
- ass grabbing
- comments about people being hired to "fill a quota"

I simply can't see how any workplace could tolerate any of these three things (at least the first three) for very long in this day and age. Those are all huge potential liability triggers, and your company's lawyers should be all over this.

If I were running a small company that had a discrimination problem that came to my attention, I would address this forcefully from the top down. I wouldn't sidebar it into the "sensitivity training" black hole, which is indeed a waste of time for people who know better. It's more important that people understand that the company is going to be run in a fair and equitable manner and that employees who cross the line are going to face sanctions.

To cite an example, the Chicago Fire Department has developed a deserved reputation as a place that has tolerated things like strippers entertaining firemen. In any sane context this would be dealt with swiftly and immediately, but it is my understanding that poor policy implementation has meant that the firemen in just one incident which only came to light 2-3 years after it happened (via the magic of home video) has now dragged on in court longer than the period before it came to light, with the involved persons fired, reinstated, fired again by a policy board, and still suing for their jobs. (I'm not worrying about getting this exactly right, this is from memory -- I'm just making a point.) When you have dysfunctional policies and a system of punishment that is centered on the embarassment to the organization, this is what you're in for someday -- years of bad publicity, especially if you have to fight any kind of union rules. The word has to come from the top, and it has to be straightforward and clear. Think of it as changing the company culture, not as some kind of diversionary tactic. Create transparency and openness; ask the employees for suggestions, and find ways to cross the gender or racial lines so that employees begin to see themselves as part of a team.
posted by dhartung at 8:07 PM on February 19, 2006

What crabintheocean said. This isn't about sensitivity, it's about being a professional. You don't come to work naked or take a dump in your cubicle, either, in case the employees in question were wondering.
posted by desuetude at 6:40 AM on February 20, 2006

Start firing people who offend. The rest of them will figure it out right quick. If you want to be nice, give them a warning first. "There are lots of things going on in the office that anyone with a brain knows are bad. We're going to start firing people if they don't stop happening." That should suffice.

The idea that you should have to educate people not to, say, pass around porn in the workplace is ridiculous. They already know not to do this; they are just getting away with it because they can, and they are trying to get away with it because they are twelve-year-olds in adult bodies. Tell them to grow up, or they will be fired and grown-ups hired in their places. Give them one warning if you're feeling charitable: "No, Timmy, we're going to be grown-ups now, remember?" Cut people who are trying a little slack, perhaps.

You will have to prove you're the Alpha Asshole to bring assholes like them in line. If you can't do that, just let them go now, it'll work better and be kinder.
posted by kindall at 10:20 AM on February 20, 2006

Fat Guy:

short-timer said "Fuck you bitch" to a 21 year old female new hire, who promptly called one of the managers. The short-timer was told not to bother with coming any more, got his built-up personal time taken away

Really?

The company not only sacked him but didn't pay him holiday pay he was entitled to?

The guy was obviously a dickhead, but that's illegal.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 2:01 PM on February 20, 2006