attended mandatory leadership diversity training, stumped the overpriced trainer/consultant
me: "well, i consider myself an ally and an unqualified feminist, but these aren't situations quite as grave as the ones i regularly face..?"
her: "okay, i'm listening! right now, women and lgbtq issues are very difficult in the workplace, and i'd encourage you not to minimize them."
me: "oh, i'm not. i consider them important and very essential. but my biggest problems in current workplace discrimination come around exclusions particular to neurodiversity"
her: "neuro...diversity?"
me: "yes, both explicit and implicit actions as well as microaggressions taken against people of atypical psychological and neurological profiles."
her: "i don't understand..."
me: "well, put it this way -- if you knew an employee has severe bipolar disorder, or was well along the schizoid or autistic spectrums, would you hire them? if they had an outburst they couldn't effectively control, or a problematic med schedule that led to incidents, how would YOU handle it?"
her: "welllllll...i'm afraid i don't understand..."
me: "alright, lemme put it clearer. if i ran out of this room because of severe social or performance anxiety coupled with a bipolar fugue or manic state -- and i'd had this same response in several prior meetings -- what would YOU recommend?"
her: "that would probably be an issue for hr, yes?"
me: "and if i was fired or excluded or career-limited because of unproductive behaviors related to my essential neurological or neurochemical makeup, would that be a good idea...OR DISCRIMINATION"
her: "mods help"
me:
