Boeing Dismantles Its Global DEI Department
Hopefully, after all the votes are counted, the nation can begin extracting DEI out of its government, too.
Last month, I reported that a Boeing-made satellite, Intelsat 33e, exploded in space this week following an “anomaly,” resulting in its total loss.
Add to the Starliner troubles, with its crew forced to stay at the International Space Station until February, and a strike by unhappy union members, 2024 has been a dreadful year for the firm’s iconic space business.
However, there are signs that Boeing may be addressing what is arguably the root cause of the problem: Rewards given based on social justice doctrine rather than merit.
Boeing is reportedly dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) department as part of an overhaul of its operations ordered by the company’s new chief.
The aerospace giant — which was slammed by tech mogul Elon Musk for prioritizing DEI over safety and quality controls after a near-catastrophic blowout during an Alaska Airlines flight — said staff from its DEI office would be absorbed into another human resources team focused on talent and employee experience, according to Bloomberg News.
Sara Liang Bowen, a company vice president who was put in charge of the now-defunct DEI unit, left the company on Thursday.
“The team achieved so much — sometimes imperfectly, never easily — and dreamed of doing much more still,” Bowen wrote in a farewell post on LinkedIn.
The successes have been so vast that the firm is now leaving its famed spaced business.
Interestingly, the trends look positive for those who want to see DEI die.
“Job posting demand for diversity roles has been declining very rapidly since its peak in August of 2022 and specifically it fell about 43% through July 2024,” Crofoot said, adding that some companies have axed their DEI roles. (See: Google, Meta and Zoom over the past year.)
Lightcast also found that DEI professionals appeared to stay in their roles for a shorter amount of time compared to other types of HR positions.
However, one human resource professional is upset with this development and argues DEI has failed because it wasn’t done the right way.
[Meaghan Nocella, principal consultant at Preve Solutions] is candid about her concerns about the future of DEI hiring. “It’s incredibly frustrating to witness what will almost certainly be a major setback for diversity – and I blame HR,” she said.
“We watched the bastardization of DEI unfold, and we let it happen. For some, it probably seemed too big and too fast to stop. Others, including myself, saw the unsustainable pace and fervor but believed it would still result in a net positive. We never imagined it could ultimately set us back.”
No one can predict what DEI hiring will look like in the coming years, but as companies navigate the changing landscape, experts say they must focus on cultivating cultures that are grounded in equitable values and demonstrate a genuine commitment to DEI initiatives.
Employees, too, should continue to learn about the topic and address unconscious biases to help foster a truly inclusive workplace.
Hopefully, after all the votes are counted, the nation can begin extracting DEI out of its government, too.
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Comments
how many “not-so-qualified
mechanics?
pilots?
atc?
are in positions of power!!!?
Too many. eviscerating the DEI infrastructure is a step in the right direction, now they need to purge all incompetent DEI hires That is how we make American businesses great again.
…”one human resource professional is upset with this development and argues DEI has failed because it wasn’t done the right way.”
With ‘liberalism’ that has always been the fall back answer.
that sentence….. EXACT description of communism failing.
they have NO self awareness.
and never will.
Leslie- keep your eyes peeled for ~11/15 to 11/18 for an update to this story WRT 10% layoffs.
My contacts tell me that is the proof of whether Boeing will turn this corner. Everyone is curious if both black and white cockroaches ruining that company will survive the nuclear blast.
Didn’t Earn It took over companies and suddenly everyone found out they couldn’t do anything with incompetent people. How strange.
I doubt any company can recover from it. Too much of the power structure is incompetent and they’re not going to favor newly arrived talent that’s better than they are.
Hence my comment above. Saw an article that the guy who claims to have gone after the other companies and “exposed” them was taking credit here. That is a blatant lie and if that circulates, it needs to be debunked.
The truth is many teams there do not keep track of performance or performance reviews. So person X gets promoted or gets a raise but person Y does not…. if person Y were to sue, there is no defense of the promotion, but in discovery it could be shown that skin color of the “rising” people were disproportionately of one color while not matching the statistical make up of the company, well then you pretty much have defined systemic racism- which is the thing they claim to be against. However that is EXACTLY what those DEI programs do.
Point that is getting lost is that government contracting drives this race tracking. Microsoft goes NUTS with this with their suppliers. They have a bunch of minority or women owned suppliers who are garbage and would have been purged ages ago, but they are friends with people in procurement who got them on those lists and are protected as such. Normal rules and procurement practices don’t apply to them.
With Boeing, this is ending because they are broke. Now will they take out the trash that has accumulated in the layoffs?????? Many are in middle and senior management- so someone a couple of levels above them has to be tired of playing the game. However many of them are black too.
I believe the phrase used in these situations is, “Learn to code”.
Suckas.
When we make the housing assignments for the camps, we’ll have to make sure DEI advocates are evenly divided between upper and lower bunks. Heh, heh!
A DEI hire, by definition, is not the best-qualified candidate. Boeing made its executives meet DEI quotas to get their bonuses. And you can bet they’ll make sure they get those DEI hires, regardless of their qualifications, so they’ll get their bonuses. These lesser-qualified hires contributed to the mess that Boeing is in.
The Secret Service also has bragged about their devotion to DEI. We can see how hiring less-qualified agents has worked out for them.