EXPERIENCE
The diversity of people in the labor market The importance of understanding and seeking the difference in small and large companies.
WRIT TEN BY: EDUARDO KR ÁS, AGILE ANALYST, JÜSSI
With the subject “diversity” on the rise, the
The fact is that these small attitudes affect
need to have teams that include different
those who have lived with this all their lives,
ethnicities,
having to prove and defend themselves all
races,
sexual
orientations,
among other factors are increasingly being reevaluated and rethought in small and large companies. Including different people guarantees a series of opportunities for development, innovation, different views on the final product, and a motivating work environment. I remember a manager, important to my career, who when he arrived at the fintech company where I worked, started a positive revolution in the company’s processes; things were improving and the area in which he worked was getting in order, only there was one problem, he was Black, and there were no Black managers in the company. He didn’t get the same respect, but it was something implicit, that I as a white man didn’t realize either. At one point he was questioned and corrected in the middle of a chat with the whole company; no head had ever been confronted like this in the almost four years I worked there, in a “public square”. After not receiving support from those above him, and even after being induced not to “cause any more trouble”, he decided to resign. The company lost out, our team lost out, I lost out.
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the time. And the question that remains is: would we, the privileged ones, besides giving opportunities to those who had to fight twice as hard, make a real space for these people? Will we just include them to fill the “inclusion space” or, in fact, judge their real capabilities and soft skills? As a gay man, it took me a while to feel open to talking about my sexual orientation, or even to demonstrate attitudes that would make people think that I really was. The fear of being joked or of not being respected for what I added as a professional was always great, and although today I am openly gay, I find myself wanting to correct some of my attitudes, in automatic mode, for fear of not being accepted. I always had great women leaders, but I saw that the concern in demonstrating their competences was very great, could it be that if they were men this was already an automatic proof of efficiency? My point is, places that don’t embrace the small differences will lose talent.
