In today’s Friday Five, I note that diversity is taking a step backwards in the workplace. I’ll also discuss an article that reveals that Christians are more likely to not be ready financially for retirement compared to the population at large. And finally, I’ll discuss the Peterson Foundation’s primer on how Medicaid is funded.
First, in diversity, the Wall Street Journal reports that Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) jobs are in much less demand than two years ago. The position is highly stressful due to the warring factions inside and outside the company. American workers are not unified on diversity in the workplace, and CDOs have found that company enthusiasm has waned as scrutiny about a CDO’s ability to improve the talent pipeline through diversity has intensified. Some CDOs are rethinking their career path as thousands of corporations move away from a CDO.
Closely aligned to the drop in CDO demand concerns a company’s brand promise – its ability to take a stand on social issues and grow its sales. The Journal reports that many companies are rethinking the wisdom of public stands on social issues. They fear a backlash from many sides, which usually results in a drop in sales. Corporate images may be enhanced with some stands for some groups, but these decisions typically carry a tradeoff that alienates other customer groups.
In both of these stories, senior management is returning to the notion that business exists to serve customers with a wide range of conflicting social and political beliefs. It is usually best if a company sticks to what it does best and stays out of social causes. God’s purposes for business – People, Products, Profits and Philanthropy – are damaged when a company takes a social stand that chooses one group over another. Christian businesses should take stands on moral issues in our society and be willing to suffer the consequences (1 Peter 4:12-19), but they should avoid taking stands on social issues that may be trending today but are replaced by other issues tomorrow.
Thirdly, far from the Supreme Court being highly partisan, their unanimous decisions – all nine – are up from 29% in 2021 to 48% in 2022. “The far left insists the Court is sharply divided along political lines. If that is true, we should expect to see those fissures represented in the Court’s decisions. Yet we find the opposite. This term, 48% of the Court’s decisions were unanimous. That is a significant increase from the 29% of decisions that were unanimous during the 2021 term.”
From the “How Do These Guys Get Into Ministry In the First Place?” department, we learn that a pastor – Robert Dell – has been charged with stealing $1.4M of products from Home Depot and selling them online. However, Home Depot suspects Dell operated this scheme for more than 10 years, resulting in the loss of more than $5 million. His former church – The Rock Church – has a disclaimer on their website about Dell being their pastor.
Lastly, if you’ve ever wondered how States pay for Medicaid, wonder no more. The Peterson Foundation has a good primer on how this funding source works.
