Discrimination
Earlier this week, the social media company Pinterest agreed to pay $22.5m to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a former executive. The company also committed to overhauling its harassment policy, following a five-month investigation into its company culture.
Gender Parity
Paris authorities have just been fined €90k – for hiring too many women in 2018. The law on gender parity (which was abolished in 2019) did not allow the appointment of more than 60% of one sex in senior public service roles. The Paris mayor said she is very happy about this fine, which was imposed for appointing 11 women and 5 men. Read more here.
Racism in the Workplace
Very interesting HBR podcast with Fran Katsoudas, Cisco’s Chief People Officer, on racism in the workplace. After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Cisco held a virtual all-hands meeting on race – and some colleagues decided to post racist comments during this meeting.
Unconscious Bias
For a long time, unconscious bias training at the workplace was very popular – but thanks to lots of studies, we know now that it does not change behaviours. At best, the training is entertaining, but findings also showed that it might activate biases, and the recommendation is to debias processes instead. The English government has now decided to phase out such training for their civil servants and is discussing different options instead.
Diversity and Inclusion 