Month: August 2021

Results of a recent survey by Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey) indicate that while nearly two thirds of employees consider workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to be an important driver of organizational success, fewer than half of C-level executives agree, “with nearly half considering DEI ‘a distraction from our company’s real work’” (J. Wilson, Are DEI initiatives ‘distracting from real work’? Canadian HR Reporter, 11-Aug-2021). Momentive CEO Zander Lurie says this makes it clear that “many executives are painfully out of touch”. At the same time, over two thirds of employees “find their employer’s DEI work meaningful”.
Given the growing evidence that DEI is not only positive but in fact increasingly necessary for workplaces to survive and thrive, senior leaders who fail to embrace this may find themselves at the helm of a sinking ship.
What influence do you think DEI has on organizational success?
What do you think?

Is addiction a disease? Probably. But according to J. T. Maier (The Disability Model of Addiction, 03-Aug-2021, Psychology Today), it should be seen foremost as a disability. Why is that significant?

While the disability model of addiction does not necessarily reject the view that addiction is a disease, it holds that (1) addiction is not foremost a medical problem, but a disability; and (2) the person is not foremost a patient, but a citizen entitled to reasonable accommodation “to go about their lives and achieve their goals” (Maier, 2021).

In this way, interventions that have benefited addicted people – such as safe injection sites, medication-assisted treatment, and indeed the ‘rehab’ system – should be viewed not as medical treatment of disease, but as reasonable accommodations of a disability.

Society is arranged in ways that favour people who are typical, and as a result, people who are in some ways atypical – including those with addictions – face systemic discrimination. “A just and self-aware society recognizes these forms of disadvantage and does what it can to alleviate them by making accommodations” (Maier, 2021).

What would it mean to look at interventions like those noted above as “accommodations” rather than “treatment”? What do you think?

Making remote work available to employees became a given when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But why was it not a given beforehand, when it was already needed to accommodate various forms of disability?

“The ability to work from home is an access need that wasn’t being met until it was necessary for nondisabled workers [.] How quickly previously inflexible employers were able to shift with the pandemic as motivation.”
– A. Leary (13-Jul-2021). Disabled People Have Worked From Home for Years. Why Did It Take a Pandemic for Everyone Else to Start? Refinery29.com.

It looks like organizations can manage to do what they need to, when they need to. Has anything been learned here? Or, will things go back to the way they were?

What do you think?