And for what it's worth, DEI's environmental cousin - ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) - reporting for investors is still going quite strong.
It's one thing to incorporate aspects of DEI into company culture and to have policy around it, but do you really need a role dedicated to DEI? I really doubt it. I've worked at a few companies with these DEI officers, and the value they bring to a company is extremely dubious, if existent at all. My last company let theirs go, despite the administration being highly leftist at the time, and it was painfully obvious why. It's insulting to everyone that a DEI officer makes more than a burger flipper considering their cushy duties.
DEI-based roles were destined to fail.
She organised events, had to find speakers, find venues for said events, wrote internal SM posts, etc.
And this was all unpaid, effectively. There was no policy, no obligation to participate, no forced anything. It was just about creating space that can either accommodate discussions or promote awareness, or workshops to help some people be inspired, feel supported or encouraged. There were culture cafés, mentoring programs, etc.
Said company seems to have had a reduction in DEI efforts/positions, but that seems aligned with a general cost reduction, not because DEI was a failure.
(I do an exceptionally poor job of summarising what she did, but then again, I wasn’t directly involved in it).
Just because something is a lot of work does not mean it is worth that investment. I can dig a giant hole in my backyard, but I'm probably not going to get much out of it aside from dirt and stone for all my efforts.
The instant it becomes obvious that the company only hires young straight white males when there are applicants that don't fit those categories and are equally or better qualified were not hired, they'll spend far more than a couple of DEI employee's annual salaries either paying the victims or paying the lawyers.
Also those responsible for ESG do not have any disciplinary power over other employees, which was different with DEI. PR of course has slightly different rules.
Still, it should be under scrutiny to not mutate into something more authoritarian again.
As a dev I can ignore ESG completely now and I don't believe I will ever become friends with it. I certainly do not change my language for them, they caused enough damage and I believe polite silence on certain topics on their part would be quite adequate.
Are you saying all ESG is just a grift to further racism and sexism? And that ESG is authoritarianism?
I don't even understand your argument.