We hear all sorts in our line of work, and we don’t judge. People say things like these in confusion, frustration, and fear. Diversity feels very threatening to some, and thinking of ‘both-and’ rather than ‘either-or’ is a really tough thing to do. Join me on my webinar next week to look at how you might go about responding at a personal, managerial, and organisational level, to stuff like this!

And if you’ve got any examples of things people say when they’re commenting that the world’s gone mad’, please share with us!

• I feel sorry for disabled people of course I do, but it seems crazy that we have to take someone on who is going to make work harder for everyone else just because of some Equalities thing. I’m sorry if you don’t have an arm or whatever, but the fact is, you can’t drive a train with one arm. This blind chap had a personal supporter with him – what a waste of money when hospitals are closing down
• Women, or ladies, or however they like to be called, just take things too personally; of course ‘man’ or ‘he’ includes women, and they’re just making a fuss about nothing. Our language has been that way for centuries and I don’t see why we need to change it just because it offends some bra-burning hairy-armpitted lesbian.
• I’m all for sharing but England is a small island and we just can’t fit any more people in. It isn’t that I’m racist – but there are too many of them now, taking houses and jobs and places in schools and hospitals. The last receptionist was lovely but I could barely understand her she was Polish I think
• To be honest I’m just confused by the whole thing – what to call people, what’s going to set them off, never knowing if I’m going to put my foot in it. In my day, coloured people were coloured and mixed race were half-caste – now it’s a nightmare!
• When people are cancelling Christmas in case it offends Muslims, I draw the line. We’ll be celebrating all their eeds or divalis next –they’ll be banning bacon before we know it
• It’s a fact that women don’t have the same commitment to work as men; they can’t help it, if they don’t have kids they want them; and if they do have kids half their attention is on the home. So of course men are going to rise to the top.
• When you work here, you should know it isn’t going to be all lovely dovey and how-are-you-feeling today. When it comes down to it, we’re here to make money.  If someone’s going to get all upset because of a bit of banter, they’re in the wrong organisation.

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