Companies that want to achieve a more diverse workforce may want to come up with a better method than just firing all the white guys and replacing them with women and racial minorities.
From NBC News:
David Duvall of Michigan sued Novant Health, Inc. in 2019 after he was fired as senior vice president of marketing and communications the previous year.
Duvall said in the suit that he was terminated without cause “as part of an intentional campaign to promote diversity in its management ranks” and that he was fired due to his sex and race.
Novant Health, which is based in Winston-Salem, has denied those allegations. It has said in court filings that he was fired for deficient performance and the delegation of critical duties to subordinates.
“We are extremely disappointed in the verdict, as we believe it is not supported by the evidence presented at trial, which includes our reason for Mr. Duvall’s termination,” a Novant Health spokesperson said in a statement. “We will pursue all legal options, including appeal.”
Duvall, hired in 2013, said he was fired shortly before his fifth anniversary at the company and was replaced by a Black woman and a white woman. He argued discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
I think Novant Health’s main problem was not creating a (fake) document trail before firing David Duvall. They needed to chronicle his supposed poor performance. Instead, they only had four years worth of good reviews to use to back up their decision.
It’s ironic that they hired two women to replace him. If he was secretly doing such a piss-poor job, why did it take two people to replace him?
The key to having a more diverse workforce is not hire white people in the first place. This is why it’s crucial to have a questionnaire on the job application asking the applicant’s race. Coupled with data such as the year they graduated high school, asking applicants to reveal their race is one of the best ways of ensuring you don’t hire an old white man for the position. What other reason would a prospective employer have in asking when I graduated high school? It because they want to find out how old an applicant is.
For the record, I graduated high school in 1982. Yes, I’m an old white guy. Worse, I’m not even gay. I’m just the kind of job applicant you do not want to hire if you want a more diverse workplace. If you hired me, I’d probably show up to work smelling like Aqua Velva and boring everyone with stories about how much cheaper everything was back in my day.
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