DIB may sound great, but Oxy just confirmed to me that it is committed to categorizing people based on race, gender and ethnicity. Equity is lowering our hiring standards and I am disgusted to work at this company. We should be looking at the most qualified individuals to achieve exceptionalism. This is garbage and makes me hate this company. Oxy is racist and our stock price sucks. Fix it!
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To the last poster. I really, honestly, am asking you to read this and consider deeply.
- Making a blanket assumption about a group of people that you dont know, based on race, s-x, and age. 2. Implicitly suggesting that if they do have a real grievance, it is not as important as others. 3. Using the phrase "white grievance."
With all the love and charity I can give, I ask, please explain how making that assumption and having that lens and using that phrase is not racist. How it is not full of cynical resentment and prejudice. Please, ask yourself that. I know that people who say things like this desire change and want to feel ethical. I understand that. But if you replace white with black or men with women in your phrases and thoughts, and the things that you say and think sound like something a member of the k-k or a 1930s workplace sexist would say, then you are advocating for equality unethically, in the wrong way. You may in fact have the wrong definition of equality. If you want to be ethical, ask yourself, when is it, if ever, ok to say the things that you are saying or thinking? Would MLK say that? The new lens of ideological thinking that is coming from academia and activists, which it sounds like you may be repeating, is antithetical to MLKs message. MLK, the most famous civil rights leader who may ever have lived. If your goal is to reduce racism, you do not achieve it by fixating on race, you actually accelerate it by fixating on race. If, somehow, you do truly want a society that is not race neutral, you would be saying that you do want a racist society.
Please consider and think deeply before responding cynically or disrespectfully. Ask yourself if what you are about to respond with is really helpful, or if it just might make you be a worse human being. Ask if what you are about to send or say might just dehumanize someone you dont know by reducing them to an identity group.
@3ljs Most of the complaints about diversity posted here are standard talking points for aggrieved older white men, so it’s probably a good assumption, and I’m probably not wrong to be making it. If you aren’t suffering from white grievance then nothing I’ve said applies to you.
Carry on.
This is just like analysis of which ethnic groups are arrested the most and then incorrectly inferring who does most of the crime. The end result is not always fair because of bias all along the way that can determine the entire outcome.
The post below is one way how new racism is achieved and excused under the guise of dib and equity. If, in reading this page, you make a default assumption that only middle aged white men are posting, or only white people could be complaining about this issue, then you have your own personal isms and stereotyping to address. People who cannot argue against the issue resort to ad hominem and reduce real concerns to "ranting." It is also possible that they may think that those posting actually prefer x% representation of whites, which may be a tell as to how they themselves view dib, and their misunderstanding of the argument presented. Why would people arguing against equality of outcome be concerned that there were not enough whites represented? Answer, they would not. If the company was majority white men, would it be ethical to discriminate against white men in hiring so as to reduce your so called representation? Answer, it would not. Poster, no one here was in NC. Sometimes a "rant" is a sign of a real ethical issue. If you think there is a concern here about not having "enough white guys" then you have missed the point. The point is to have skin color and s-x etc be as important as hair color or the number of letters in your first name. Not important at all.
Just don’t select a racial category on your application. It’s against federal law to force you to choose one. That’s why “prefer not to identify” is an option on the application.
As for all of the aggrieved middle-age white men ranting here….get over yourselves. White men are very well represented in O&G, making up more than 70% of the workforce and over 90% of senior leadership.
Here’s more lay-off thoughts. When are they going to reorganize and let go of staff they don’t need anymore. How can this company claim synergies even though there has not been a real lay-off since the merger. Reductions were done through VSP and reductions due to performance issues.
They can say what they want, but as it stands now Oxy would sink without the caucasians at the company. If we all walked out the door tomorrow the company would fold. That is just the fact of it. Looking at all these comments it looks like Oxy is doing their best to send the wrong message to a group of people. People will not quit, but it sure makes them think hard about going that extra mile for the company. If I were on the Board word would come down to be more inclusive, but don't alienate the majority of your core workers just to do some virtue signaling. I had co-workers tell me they feel they were attacked, and I feel the same. I am sure there are many good workers of all color, but I don't see that many of color doing the jobs that it takes to get the oil out of the ground such as geologist and engineers. It takes time for change to happen and there is no need to come down on others in the process.
Company policy never prevents rotten people from acting in a bad way. This is because they were either brought up this way or were damaged as an adult in some way. It is amazing that these bigots, racists, and sexists don’t realize that their behavior is not acceptable.
Heresay about a memo that we cannot validate is irrelevant. If you can prove it, please do it. Otherwise, stick to criticism of the dib policy and dib definitions that employees can see, and the obvious contradiction with the ethics hiring policy. It is possible to have a benign explanation for a race and s-x diverse diversity council, and hr team, or for a lack of race and s-x diversity in other parts of the company. However, based on the policy proposed and the definitions of dib, the source material on the dib website, woke idealogy permeating oxy, yammer posts showing s-x breakdown and "disparity" by profession, recommended readings shared by the ex dib director about antiracism and white fragility, which are racist books, and even a yammer post calling out white males that was made by one such diversity council member, which was somehow not flagged as hateful and racist, it is more than likely that the company is not fair and not unbiased in this regard. Uniqueness is no longer content of character at oxy. Inclusion quickly becomes identity diverse people who all think the same. For those skeptical about the idea of such identity group discrimination in itself becoming popular again, look up california prop 16, which was proposed in 2020, but did not pass. We will see it again.
That policy is illegal as soon as a candidate sits down for the interview or engages on a phone interview. Up until that point they can interview anyone who they want. But how would they know if someone is of color just from a resume. If they are screening resumes for only people of color this is highly unethical. I seriously doubt if this memo ever existed because I have always known the company to be fair and unbiased.
There was a memo to leadership last year that actually stated that they were to only hire people of color. Look at the Corp HR team (led by the lead diversity woman) All women & people of color. You’re telling me there’s no one other than African American women that could work in HR? Ridiculous!
Why are they worried about DIB with a company that has major financial problems. This doesn’t matter at all to attract either stockholders or future employees. Gone are the days when Oxy was not so political. Those were the days and it was sad to see it end.
white older males are being pushed aside. Call it what you want, to me it is clear.
This is such a catch-22. If you’re white and defend yourself, you’re racist. I am looking to the other people in the company to stand and do what is right. Say no to DIB and it’s completely racist stances. Say no to DIB.
Conditional equality of outcome is not an acceptable form of DIB if it involves reduction of humans to identity groups and subsequent discrimination based on said groups. Land of opportunity, not land of outcome. Focus on the former ethically without turning it into the latter.
You’re 100% on the euphemisms. DIB sounds so positive, how could it be bad? What is happening is that positive discrimination is not being seen as discrimination.
It is all in how your dib targets are set up. For new hires if it is based on the diversity of people graduating regionally the year before in each category with a GPA greater than 3.25 then it is fair. If they are making up target numbers based on total population diversity in the region it is not fair. Generally speaking people are the same and need to be evaluated on their education, sills, experience, and soft skills.
You do not understand the op's post. Equal opportunity is not equal outcome. They cannot exist simultaneously and the latter easily becomes unethical because ends are used to justify means. Give this post and the op a charitable reading, look at the oxy ethics policy document and their hiring policy. Anti discrimination, that is equality of opportunity. Oxy dib is doing the opposite, with well formed euphemism, so well that most don't notice.
So, if I understand right, you are saying that Oxy is lowering its hiring standard because it wants to provide equal opportunity employment. Your comment assumes that the most qualified individuals are white. I see the racism in your comment, and definitely not in Oxy’a actions.
So my post got taken down because I guess it spoke the truth. So I will just say offer a VSP to let those of us out that want out now. I will be glad to leave and make room for those needing the job to make the numbers.
Dont join a union based on race or you will play the same game as movement you detest, and in reality you will lose because it will only be seen by the people you are hoping to convince as a sign of racism.
John FAIR. Look it up. Take a course on Theory of Enchantment. Support groups and trainings like this. Both are an ethical approach to this cultural issue, viable alternatives. Both allow for corporate training or membership. Both are against racism, the actual definition, rather than the Kendi or Diangelo or critical theory term.
I’ve been at Oxy for over a decade, but I’ve never heard such a divisive talk. What I saw today just disappoints me. Maybe white employees need to form a union at this point.