Political correctness

I have worked in a number of organisations during my career, including a very small building firm, a UK FMCG company, one of the most famous Universities in the UK (happy 800th!), in private health and with a multi-national corporation. One thing that I never particularly thought about (especially in the early days) was political correctness, probably because it never occurred to anyone to be anything other than polite, accepting and professional with colleagues.

I remember back in the 80's, working for a huge international computer company, that the only issue that ever arose (and this was whilst working with people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations and cultures) was that one of the girls was holding prayer meetings - in the corridor (big open plan offices). All that was done was that she was asked to book a meeting room instead.

No matter how individuals feel about 'political correctness', promoting equality and diversity and ensuring all your employees feel valued is vital in the modern workplace. It makes good business sense too, as workers who feel valued are usually more productive and less likely to leave your employment.

There is a great resource available on the ACAS website which gives you some helpful tools and free downloads.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1440

Training in diversity is important, because not all companies are like that computer giant I worked for. People are all different, as different in their prejudices as their choices in life. Supporting your people in understanding diversity could be extremely important and even save embarassing and damaging litigation. What one person sees as 'just being funny' may be someone else's harassment.