Bringing your whole self to work with Pride Pledge

There’s money in misery. We humans are good at spotting it and creating a business out of alleviating it. We also carve identities out being caring people who help the miserable. The simple reality is that as long as we walk the earth there’s going to be misery, and there are going to be people for whom that feeds their business or empathy. Or that clever combo of both.

Hello Pride Pledge, New Zealand.

Pride Pledge’s corporate-speak mission statement on their website says: “The Pride Pledge is a values-based commitment that organisations and individuals can take to demonstrate their dedication to the safety, visibility and inclusion of the rainbow members of their community and workforce, both internally and externally.” I.e. organisations and individuals can acquire a badge of approval for showing how nice they are to rainbow people. And if you’re a small business with not a lot of spare money, they reassure you in their info brochure that they “offer services to organisations that neither have the staff or funds to achieve the Rainbow Tick”.

Rainbow people were once LGB people, but the rainbow has now been expanded to LGBTQIA+, which has resulted in a mélange of conflicting rights.

All things rainbow has become lucrative business. Pride Pledge is the trading name of registered company South Pacific Pride Ltd, previously registered as HR Space Ltd. The director and founder of Pride Pledge, Martin King, has twenty years’ experience in human resources prior to tapping into the commercialisation of the rainbow. Pride Pledge sells consultations, training, merchandise, courses, evaluations, and opportunities for supporters to up their level of “values-based commitment” for a price. After all, this is a business. Pledgers can pay for a stocktake to be done on them - by Pride Pledge, of course - to evaluate how rainbow-committed they are, and how they can do better. The classic up-sell, in other words.

In answer to the question “Why take the Pride Pledge” in their New Supporters Information Pack, Pride Pledge state that -

“A diverse workplace is a strong and happy one. Your commitment to the celebration of all people in your organisation has many benefits. When employees feel accepted and able to bring their whole selves to work, their organisations see a huge improvement in engagement, wellbeing, and productivity, as well as employee attraction and retention. Additionally, organisations who are active and proud in their support for rainbow communities see great improvement in brand reputation, customer engagement, as well as shareholder value.” Mr King’s twenty years of polishing his HR-speak shows its’ shine here.

The remainder of the New Supporters Information Pack continues in the same vein of selling businesses and organisations the idea that they need to ‘rainbow’ themselves up, and not be left behind. Trying to better a workplace’s culture is a worthy mission, but many years in the workforce gives me the ability to recognise corporate-style guff when I see it.

So, I have a few questions and comments -

1)      What does Mr King mean by “a diverse workplace is a strong and happy one”? It’s a good soundbite, but what does he mean by diverse? The ‘right’ kind of diverse, or any kind of diverse? Has rainbow become synonymous with ‘diverse’, or does diverse still mean diverse? My experience says that diversity can also cause friction amongst employees, depending on the mix. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. A strong and happy workplace has many, many factors which contributes to it, and it’s always in flux depending on personalities.

2)      Are all employees encouraged “to bring their whole selves to work”? Can a gender critical employee (who may also be part of the rainbow) bring their whole selves to work and not be subjected to the rampant bullying they currently experience by both managers and colleagues under the guise of moral superiority? Where will Pride Pledge stand when the first gender critical employee (who may also be part of the rainbow) takes out a personal grievance complaint against their employer for allowing their life to be hell at work due to their beliefs?

3)      Does an employee who brings their whole self to work need to show any restraint out of respect for their employer and colleagues?

4)      Apparently, when an employee can bring their whole self to work “organisations see a huge improvement in engagement, wellbeing, and productivity, as well as employee attraction and retention”. That’s an attractive carrot you’ve dangled there for employers, I have to say. I expect they are beating down your door, Mr King, to get that thing you’re selling which will do this. Just one small question – got any hard stats?  And I don’t mean prettily worded references from those who have bought the Pride Pledge package and foisted it upon their employees who had better not complain or not comply, or else.

5)      And last of all “organisations who are active and proud in their support for rainbow communities see great improvement in brand reputation, customer engagement, as well as shareholder value.” Which is another way of asking if your organisation can afford not to be on board and have the right optics. Failure to do so could cause failure. Once again, a few hard stats may be more compelling.

Businesses selling the rainbow are riding an almost criticism-free wave at the moment, and the money-making potential is huge. An OIA showed that one government department here in New Zealand has so far spent $5,387.39+GST with Pride Pledge between 2020 and 2022, which is not an enormous amount in the grand scheme of taxpayers paying for things whose necessity is dubious. However, if that’s multiplied by the 250+ businesses and organisations that are signed up with Pride Pledge (now increased to 300+ since writing this a year ago), some of whom may spend more, it’s starting to look like a nice little earner.

I don’t imagine that the earning potential will diminish anytime soon. Most current narratives promote LGBTQIA+ as a vulnerable group (in which there is a kernel of truth) rather than promoting self-resilience. There is more focus on wanting others to make changes. There’s no doubt that sometimes change is good, but trying to fix others with forced re-education is an illusion.

However, money talks. There’s a lot more money yet to be milked from the rainbow, in all spheres, so don’t expect sales pitches to stop any time soon.