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 DC> Whenever I reflect on the change in college culture over the years, and
 DC> how it's translated into political culture/desired laws and social
 DC> justice initiatives .. I seem to recall it falling inline with the
 DC> evolution of HR departments within corporations.  My "Conspiracy
 DC> theory" I like to throw out at the dinner table whenever a relative
 DC> won't shut up about politics is "The cause is human resources."  Albeit
 DC> I'm kidding .. "culture and diversity training" are just fancy words
 DC> for "Reduce liabity of fines, penalties, and lawsuits."  In America, as
 DC> I'm sure true anywhere, it's cheaper to settle a false claim of
 DC> wrongful termination (averaging $10,000 per settlement,) then it is to
 DC> go to trial.  There are quite a few opportunistic people out there that
 DC> have created a culture within the workforce that supresses us from
 DC> being human - from being ourselves - without fear of being fired and or
 DC> wrongly accused of having offended another.  Human Resources used to
 DC> simply be recruiting, payroll, and seperate department managers who
 DC> dealt with employee complaints.  Whatever year most companies began
 DC> consolidating it into a singular department, is the time since, I have
 DC> not enjoyed working for corporations.  My  "Conspiracy theory" is that
 DC> it's also cheaper for corporations to pay off politicians to pursue
 DC> agendas that reduce liability for said corporations.  Therefore the
 DC> push for education and law to practice supression of our rights to
 DC> freedom of speech. Not to mention the confusion corporations create --
 DC> what you can't say at work without being fired for, you freely can
 DC> outside of work -- is not nearly as definitive of a line as it once
 DC> was.  With social media these days, one who is freely expressing their
 DC> legal rights, can lose their job for what they posted on their off
 DC> time, or not aquire a job to begin with.  America is so divided left
 DC> versus right, most corporations, the media, and politicians, leaning
 DC> left, pampering to a generation of youth who are overly entitled, that
 DC> if one does lean more right (like I do,) said invidivuals are at a
 DC> disadvantage in aquiring a job and or within the work force.  I hope a
 DC> day exists the government realizes this invasive right to privacy, and
 DC> discrimiation corporations are emposing, and draws fine line relations
 DC> restricting companies from snooping facebook accounts.

 DC> I'm somewhat off topic, however my point I guess, is that I'm finding a
 DC> lot of people attempting to start their own businesses as a result of
 DC> the "culture" that these companies are so "proud of."

 DC> I love the word rubbish ... we don't use that often in the states!  So
 DC> true, so true ... I remember when HR started creating sexual harrasment
 DC> videos.  It was always some old white guy making ridiculous passes at a
 DC> college aged girl.  The actors and examples were ubsurd.  99% of those
 DC> who sign up to work for an organization do so with the positive intent
 DC> to be a good employee, to do be ethical, and to strive to do our best
 DC> daily.  I don't know ANYONE who goes into work every day striving to do
 DC> a bad job, or use words to intentionally offend someone, etc.. the 1%
 DC> who do have made working for corporations borderline hostile.  I can't
 DC> imagine the verbage "rubbish" guides being trained on and written into
 DC> handbooks in 2020 with the evolution of gender identification, pronoun
 DC> usage, and sexuality identification.  Not to mention this ridiculous
 DC> personality profile people are taking and adding theirs to profiles and
 DC> or resumes.  Exactly how much does a company need to know about my
 DC> personal life prior to hiring me?

Companies tend to just take the most precautionary course of action.  Better to
just fall in line, than risk bad press.  I work for a "brand", and there is the
constant fear of bad press.  All it takes, is some "journalist" taking a tweet
or two and constructing a news story out of it.  Even though those stories
don't really have any effect, the company doesn't want to deal with it.  They
don't want to manage that potential risk.  The modern way is precaution at all
cost, not risk managment.

So yes, they see it better to just blindly accept the immoral and
discriminatory "diversity" policy, or just fire the performing employee who
said something on Twitter that upset four other people on Twitter.  The irony
is, these companies claim they have principles, but in reality, they bend the
knee without objection at all and will act unprincipled to avoid what they
consider bad press.  Your "Conspiracy Theory" has merit.

Human Resources is a large part of this culture too.  In part, they want the
brand to appeal to others, in part, they want to personally engage in making
the world a better place, and then taking advantage of thier power over others
to do so.  HR is a rort if you ask me.  They are paid for these complex
programs which I believe make little to no difference.  The correlation between
strong HR departments and company performance is due to wealth companies
affording complex HR programs, not complex HR programs resulting in
performance.  The worst thing is, they weigh in on social issues (such as these
riots), without ANY political, historical or philosophical understand of what
they are commenting in.  Imagine 14 year old school children taking control of
companies, this is our world now.

Saagar Enjeti from The Hill (A YouTube channel I recommend) made a point that
I've mused over for a while too.  In companies pushing this type of politics,
they can divert attention from their own inequities and their own structural
problems.  Why would big companies support their riots, he mused.  In making
the social problems about racism, sexism and other boogeymen from the past,
people will focus on old ideas, instead of looking at how modern wealth
inequality, the GFC, the bailouts etc, have disadvantaged people, and
disadvantaged Blacks.  It draws people attention towards "historical racism",
allowing people perpetuating modern injustices to get away with it.  Women are
far, far more disadvantaged in Australia due to high house prices and
stagnating wages than they are some suppose 'pay gap', but these aren't
problems the ruling elite want thought about.  To be honest, those in less
professional positions, understand this better than the more educated ones.

I can say that companies which have a strong "culture" are stifling, and the
staff retention rate is not that great.  It's all a lie.  They create a
narrative to explain away their failure, their poor performance.  You can't
even say that a system that doesn't work could be improved, because that is
'negative'.  If the company was doing great as a result, massive bonuses, pay
rises, job security, then yeah, maybe I could admit there is some merit.  But I
have none of that.

... Dennis Katsonis
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