Leadership seems to believe it's more important to play politics than to do business or "make a positive difference". I'll start with what's objectively true. Leadership vetoed 3 different charity nominations from 3 different individuals for their First Fruits event last year. What these 3 had in common was being LGBTQ organizations. The only requirement given to employees about charities that can be nominated was that they have to be 501c3s, which these organizations were. There were several excuses given in private behind closed doors about why these organizations denied, but when looked at collectively and compared to other organizations that were allowed, doesn't really hold up. More importantly, they should come out and say what these rules they make up on the spot are. "Oh actually, no organizations that are too focused on advocacy" etc. Keep in mind, organizations do get successfully nominated for advocating other diverse groups, like women and latinos. This issue last year around First Fruits really lead myself and others to discover that leadership is very political when it comes to LGBTQ. Two employees other than myself were verbally threatened with retribution if they sent out an email trying to celebrate a Pride lunch last year. Keep in mind, the Disher company wide email resource gets used for all kinds of things - celebrating black history month, people selling a bicycle, Women's empowerment. Basically anything totally trivial to big company announcements. The only thing that's not allowed is any acknowledgement that gay people exist. Myself and another coworker were given "official warnings" for complaining about these double standards. Not because they were double standards but because we didn't show leadership enough trust. Well fair enough, I don't trust bigots. I told the CEO in a private meeting where I brought up the fact that his discrimination is a legal concern for everyone working for him. In Michigan, it is illegal to treat employees differently on the basis on sexual orientation or gender identity. The CEO asked why I cared, as if someone has to be a member of an oppressed group to care if that group gets oppressed. I explained how dumb that logic is. He told me that he "checked in" with all the employees affected by the LGBTQ decisions that have been happening and he's had largely positive experiences. I know some of those other LGBTQ employees so I know this is a bold faced lie. And I double checked with said individuals, and they said that was not at all their take-aways from their interactions with the CEO. In the moment though, I didn't call him out for being a liar, I just pointed out that due to the toxic work environment, no one still in the closet would come out to him ,so he can't possibly know who every affected individual is. As case in point, I told him that I'm bi. He closed out the conversation by saying he'd pray for me. Considering I've never heard him say anything that unprofessional before (religion is fine, just don't force it on me), I can only take it as an insult, implying my sexuality is a sin. After this conversation, the CEO repaid my concern by trying to put me on a performance improvement plan, citing the above private conversation as the reason, the week before my annual review, which would have had the effect of preventing my annual merit increase raise. I had a meeting with HR about it. After I explained what the private conversation I had with the CEO was, HR got a lawyer involved. It seems like worker retaliation was finally a bridge too far for HR and some other members of leadership. They sided against the CEO and I was not put on performance improvement plan. But while all that was happening, my raise was delayed by a few weeks, and they told me the "compromise" was that my raise was not backdated. So actually they did retaliate against me then for voicing legal concerns, which is again, a pretty significant legal concern. Shortly after this I quit because of the repeated incidents of discrimination and persecution. Just not worth the pay. These actions should concern everyone who works at Disher or would consider working at Disher. The CEO is absolutely deranged in his willingness to legally endanger the well being of everyone working there by refusing to just treat LGBTQ employees the same as other employees.
