Unconscious Bias Training.

[mickd1961]

On my way home from Tenby I was listening to a piece on Radio 5Live about companies and institutions that are now sending their staff to Unconscious Bias Training classes.

This is where you are taught to unthink.

Apparently many of us are riddled with bias and need to eradicate this from our being.

What a hideous load of claptrap ( there I go again I suppose! )

This Liberal “Leftie” nonsense is what’s causing so many of today’s problems in my opinion.

Has nobody explained to to these types that this “bias” is what’s commonly known as “having an opinion” and it has ever been thus.

I remember getting a severe bol locking from my Sales Director in the mid 90’s at a training course costing our company thousands.

A room full of about 40 of us were told to link hands with the nearest person which created a really messed up chain.

We then had to “work together” to extricate ourselves without breaking hands.

I refused to engage and walked out followed by a few of our other lads and I topped things off by saying I thought it was all “bo locks”.

The event was halted and me and the other lads were hauled in for a dressing down.

My boss said he thought we were a disgrace and I disagreed and told him I thought the disgrace was the multi thousands our cash strapped company were wasting on this tosh.

I explained to him that as a sales manager of a large territory like each of us lads were that we were in effect “lone wolves”.........we were actively encouraged to smash our fellow reps figures.

The word “team” doesn’t come into a salesman’s vernacular........it’s all about “self,self,self”.........you couldn’t give a toss that your other reps are having a bad day.

The sales director and his regional managers were the ones that needed to learn how to operate a f king team......not us......they couldn’t see the irony.

Unconscious Bias Training would’ve seen the end of me in the corporate world.

It’s like forcing everyone to take the knee........the fear of not doing it is the reason many are doing it.

Society is crippled by all of this junk.

[Albionic68]

I completed an online survey once relating to unconscious bias. It surmised that I approached people and situations with zero unconscious bias. Living proof there's a way around many online surveys and tick tests.

SOTV 😎 .

[1060Albion]

You must have been reading my mind mickd1961, or at least to some extent.
Before retirement I was a senior manager in a public sector organisation and, over the years, attended some excellent courses, but, like you, some that were not quite so good (being diplomatic!!)
That said it was management speak and buzz words that really used to pee me off and it was invariably those who would do anything to shin their way up the greasy pole to the next position that were the worst offenders.
May be unsurprisingly, when my wife (also public sector) came home last night with the latest buzz word, I nearly choked.
Apparently, no longer, when looking at team performance or areas of business for improvements is there an examination or an inspection, rather it is a... DEEP DIVE !!!!
Well, f*** my spats, just when I thought I'd heard it all. I wonder which complete nob came up with that one? 🤬🤬🤬

[Albionic68]

Minor observation but Deep Dive isn't new. I await it's successor..... 'Decompression Phase'.

[DaveP67 is back!]

Mick, you would last about 30 seconds into your HR induction! I have had the fortune and misfortune to work in the city for the last 25 years, the culture is completely the polar opposite of what it was back then, as an example in the early days at a well known global news agency I was able to order a bottle of wine for an afternoon meeting if I do choose, alcohol fuelled the city back then and the lad culture was at its peak, honestly now I’m older and more mature I’m not sorry to see the back of certain aspects of it. Coming from the Black Country into that arena was a baptism of fire, thankfully I can dish it out with aplomb, however for women or any minority it would have been intolerable ***ism and racism being rife and god help anyone who was anything other than hetero***ual. What we see now tho is a massive and too big swing the other way, hopefully the see saw levels out soon and we all just apply common sense, which most of these tick box corporate training courses try and explain in a ridiculous buzz phrase laden way. For example over the next 2 weeks I am supposed to attend courses on Inclusion and Understanding, Growth Mindset, Connectivity and The Power of Pause!!

Took unconscious bias a while back and yes we all have preconceived opinions but as long as we acknowledge that and work to understand the true person we usually do ok, if it were me I’d change the course title to ‘ Don’t judge a book by its cover’ and leave it at that...
I do pity the younger ones coming into the world of work.. no room for self expression anymore just tow the corporate line work 18 hours a day, take the antidepressants and get into massive housing and credit card / university debt you might pay off just before you die....

[stripes39]

I have a relative who has spent his life in local government in the south of England. 'Woke' doesn't begin to describe him although thankfully I see little of him. He's quite senior now and was part of a committee who authorised all employees to attend a series of diversification classes at enormous cost to the tax payer of that particular council. I asked how he could justify the cost of this whilst at the same time his council were cutting essential support to the elderly such as mental health, meals on wheels and home helps etc and he said it was about 'priorities'.

Even Parliament and the BBC are sending all employees on courses to support this nonsense. I think this BLM bandwagon which strongly supports UBT type thinking aided by sanctimonious idiots like Lewis Hamilton are by far the biggest problem in society as their starting point is that nearly everyone white is a racist and as with BLM , its about division and polarising opinion, nothing to do with building bridges, mutual respect for everyone in society or getting on.

[mickd1961]

I have a relative who has spent his life in local government in the south of England. 'Woke' doesn't begin to describe him although thankfully I see little of him. He's quite senior now and was part of a committee who authorised all employees to attend a series of diversification classes at enormous cost to the tax payer of that particular council. I asked how he could justify the cost of this whilst at the same time his council were cutting essential support to the elderly such as mental health, meals on wheels and home helps etc and he said it was about 'priorities'.

Even Parliament and the BBC are sending all employees on courses to support this nonsense. I think this BLM bandwagon which strongly supports UBT type thinking aided by sanctimonious idiots like Lewis Hamilton are by far the biggest problem in society as their starting point is that nearly everyone white is a racist and as with BLM , its about division and polarising opinion, nothing to do with building bridges, mutual respect for everyone in society or getting on.

Lewis Hamilton can drive a bandwagon even faster than that Mercedes mate!

He wasn’t exactly marginalised by white Ron Dennis at McLaren as a young kid or by white Toto Wolff at Mercedes.

My cousin who works at a northern university is beyond “woke”.

The last ten years she’s just become more and more indoctrinated with this stuff and she’s made up now that BLM is the flavour of the month.

We met up in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago and she brought up BLM and could not see my point about all lives mattering.

She wouldn’t entertain my argument that people should be allowed to agree in principle with better treatment of black people but not feel forced to take a knee.........she couldn’t appreciate the sinister nature of being forced into an action you don’t feel comfortable with just because of the backlash the zealots will give you.

[1060Albion]

Whoops, maybe been retired longer than I thought. In my defence I am into my 11th year as an 'Old Bugger' 🥴

[westcountryvillain]

Great thread chaps and I wholeheartedly agree!