Michelle T. Johnson
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Website
 
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Featured
Question of the Month
What does workplace diversity and inclusion cover?
a. Only racial minority groups and women
b. Only groups protected under local, state and federal EEOC
laws
c. Whatever group is getting the most airtime on the news
d. Any person, group or culture that has to deal with fitting their
lifestyle, history, viewpoint or culture into the workplace.
Answer: See next month's newsletter!
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Looking for someone to help with your diversity needs
involving writing, speaking or training? Call or email me!
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Diversity
Diva Newsletter |
Greetings!
Lucky
you, you're among the first to get my debut newsletter addressing
issues of Workplace Diversity! It's a monthly newsletter where your
get a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll when it comes
to my views on diversity and where, hopefully, you can become part
of my mission to make the American workplace a happier, better,
more fair workplace, one person at a time.
So please forward this to anyone interested in workplace diversity
and enjoy!
Michelle a.k.a The Diversity Diva
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Is Workplace Diversity Becoming An
Obsolete Issue?
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Why
is workplace diversity still important in a time and place where we
have a black President, and female Secretary of State and many
Hispanics, Asians and gay and lesbian in very important and visible
positions?
Ahhh, if only it were that easy!. First of all, my battle cry is
and always will be that diversity is more than race, gender and
sexual orientation. Diversity isn't just about non-discrimination,
even though that's pretty big.
Diversity is just another word for difference. It's about how
people relate to one another based on who they are, where they come
from, and how they live their lives right now.
We live in an increasingly boxed up society. By that I mean, that
the more differences people openly acknowledge and celebrate, the
more ability people have to stick someone in a mental box and think
they know everything they need to know.
The problem is, real people get in the way. Celebrities on the TV
screen, politicians in the news, even pretty pictures on company
brochures have nothing to do with individual employers or
co-workers or subordinates.
The American workplace isn't a melting pot - it's more like a
highway intersection where people have no real input or control
over the people they will meet, drive beside or even crash
into.
Progress in society reflected by the rich, famous and powerful is
a great marker for the equality we fight to achieve. But true
equality is a constant goal where the measuring stick has to be
applied one workplace at a time, one person at a time.
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July Diversity Diva Column
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Dear
Diversity Diva:
I just don't get celebrating Gay Pride Month at work. I mean, I
don't particularly care for Black History Month or Women's History
Month being recognized at work either, but I at least get that
people can't help their race or gender. But I don't get why we are
celebrating people's personal lives?
Signed, Straight and Humble
Dear Straight and Humble,
My short column couldn't begin to touch the complexities of gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues in our society, let alone
the workplace, but I hope I can shed a little light.
Sexual orientation may seem like just a "personal" issue to you,
and to a certain extent, you're right regardless of whether you are
straight or gay. But personal aspects have never been left
completely out of the workplace - a man putting a picture of his
wife on the desk, a woman hanging up her children's artwork in her
office. All personal. All casually accepted.
There are few jobs that are so rigidly impersonal that those
touches reflecting an employee's individual humanity or family life
are outright banned. They are what make most employees more
productive and comfortable at work.
Even in the military where soldiers wear the same uniform and
uniformly honor the same rules, part of their bonding is over
allegiance to their loved ones.
You may not feel comfortable knowing about the different sexual and
family orientations of others your work with, let alone celebrating
them, but that doesn't make them go away.
The truth is organizations always step on shaky ground when they
acknowledge and celebrate the differences of their employees. But
the companies who do so are smart enough to get that it's not just
about "feel good" moments but instead about promoting an
environment in which everyone works well because no one is
expending unproductive energy hiding fundamental aspects of who
they are.
Column originally published in the
Kansas City Star and is not to be reproduced, sold, published or
broadcast without permission of the copyright owner (the
author).
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Remember,
when it comes to understanding others, seek first to understand
than to be understood and when it comes to conflict, don't start
none, won't be none!
"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way you will
command the attention of the world."
George Washington Carver
(1864-1943)
Sincerely,
Michelle
T. Johnson
Diversity Diva |
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