If an Employer Says These Five Words, It’s a GIGANTIC Red Flag
By: Sarah Lacy
Tags: Work, Workplace Culture, Diversity And Inclusion, Equality, Silicon Valley

If you’ve joined the many Americans who have plunged themselves into anti-racism work this summer, you’ve likely learned a lot about the coded ways politicians began to talk about race after the violence in the Civil Rights movement was televised and the idea of being explicitly racist developed a social stigma.

“War on drugs”

“Wellfare moms”

“Urban”

“Inner city”

These were all words that politicians used when they were justifying policies that disproportionately impacted people of color. (I recommend reading “Stamped from the Beginning” to get a thorough understanding of how the stats of actual violence and drug use in Black neighborhoods were greatly misrepresented throughout the 80s and 90s.)

Apparently, the New York Times still has some studying to do. This article purported to show the POV of Trump supporters who are not racist or sexist. And yet their justifications are still full of coded language of bigotry. The feeling deep in a man’s bones that a woman just shouldn’t have the right to make healthcare decisions when it comes to her body. The conviction that the borders need to be stricter and putting kids in cages has made them that way.

To paraphrase the old Palmolive commercials, “Oh, racism? You’re soaking in it!”

Closer to my home in Silicon Valley, we’re also learning some justifications that are commonly used that are massive red flags of — at best — unconscious bias. One is around the ol’ “gut feeling.”

“I can’t put my finger on it or give you a good reason why, but I just think engineers won’t want to report to a female CTO…”

That kind of thing. It’s been well proven that the gut is where unconscious bias goes to breed. Red flag.

“I don’t know, this founder just reminds me of myself at his age…” Another justification for why 98% of the venture industry writes checks to founders who look just like them in race and gender.

Here’s another one that applies to venture funds, startups and large tech companies: “Not a good cultural fit.”

Because there’s such an emphasis on the importance of corporate culture, “culture” has been used as an excuse to marginalize people who have kids and don’t want to work all hours, who aren’t OK with racist jokes, who don’t want to have sex in stairwells, who don’t want to steal trade secrets to get ahead, who don’t feel “flattered” when they are sexually harassed.

It’s so common that it’s become code, right up there with “inner city”.

If a company’s culture is used as an excuse to harass or discriminate, run. It will not change. Just look at Uber. So much press that Dara Khosrowshahi was changing everything. Fast forward to the current campaign over whether or not drivers should be classified as employees and guess what? Uber is still doxxing and aggressively trying to silence those holding it accountable, especially women. New Uber, same as the old Uber.

I was recently listening to a new favorite podcast called “Lola’s Ink,” by Jenna Hanchard. My favorite episode was called, “In a world full of Karens be an Elizabeth,” and it was about the first (maybe only?) white woman that Jenna and her friend Jodi-Ann Burey worked with who they trusted. This was a woman named Elizabeth who seems “sweet” and unthreatening but in a meeting about crafting corporate values pushed back on words like “cultural fit” to make sure they weren’t cover for white supremacy. In the interview, Jenna asks Elizabeth what drove her to speak up that boldly, using words like “white supremacy”. She said as a white woman, she wouldn’t face consequences, the way black employees would.

I found two things amazing about that story: The first was that a white woman realized how much more power she had and used it. The second was how rare that was. It was stunning to Jenn and Jodi-Ann when they experienced what true allyship was.

Calling out the dog whistles around worlds like “Cultural fit” is where the rubber hits the road between diversity and inclusion. Chairman Mom is doing an awesome event on Wednesday, 9/2 on this topic, inviting everyone to learn how to be a good workplace citizen by developing an “inclusion mindset.” It’s kind of like how a “growth mindset” encourages you to add “yet” to the end of a negative or limiting statement.

“I have never built a billion dollar company.”

Versus

“I have never built a billion dollar company… yet”

An inclusion mindset is similar, writes Valarie Villareal, who is leading the discussion for us. It’s not about doing any one “thing” or checking a box, and certainly not just about hiring. It’s about rethinking everything through an inclusion lens.

Valarie is phenomenal. She’s a first generation America, Latinx mom who has worked for the biggest companies in Silicon Valley. She has written amazingly insightful articles about the micro and macro “cultural” red flags at those companies; things that might surprise people who grew up middle class and white. One example? Free lunches. When you grow up poor, there’s a stigma attached to getting free food, she explains. What seems like an exciting perk, can have extra emotional baggage. This is not to say never offer free food. But it is to invite employers to be aware of these things, to question their assumptions.

The thing is with a growth mindset, well that helps us make more money! Why should companies change their mindset when they’ve already proven they don’t prioritize diversity?

Well, there’s the copious data that shows inclusion will also make companies more money. But beyond that, we’ve already seen founders get fired for not being inclusive. As the tragic events in Washington this week show, the imperative around race in this country isn’t going away. Companies have the option now to lead now and reap the benefits. In the future, it will be more stick than carrot.

Also, don’t you want to work at a more inclusive company? If it’s not a priority for you, you might ask yourself why not.