I’ve followed the public debate over Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the corporate world with keen interest, a topic that hits close to home. Four years ago, I retired from a career in Human Resources consulting after watching colleagues pressure their corporate clients to fixate on race and gender identities when reviewing their benefit programs. I recall twisting myself into knots to justify slicing a benefits survey by race—say, how white versus Black employees ranked paid time off against flexible work arrangements—despite it being illegal to treat employees differently by race. My employer insisted that highlighting racially-disparate opinions was a value-add, though my sarcastic suggestion to chart ice cream flavor preferences by race fell flat.

The podcast series "It's Not Working" recently hosted an informative discussion with Stella O'Malley of Genspect about trans-identifying people in the workplace. The show notes include a helpful overview of the episode along with noteworthy time stamps. The entire episode is here.